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Cyber security is not an entry-level field. There are a number of fundamentals and a sort of knowledge base that you need to learn before you even get into the industry or get your foot in the door of cybersecurity. For a lot of people, that’s an insurmountable obstacle or something that keeps them from getting into that field.
In this blog post, we will break down the requirements and foundational knowledge you need to get started in cybersecurity. Before I get to the meat of this blog. I want to make one thing clear: There is no set path to getting started in cybersecurity. There is no roadmap that lays out exactly how you need to proceed. You need to take that one step in the first month. With that one step in the second month, cybersecurity is just not that easy.
There are a number of general basics that you need to understand. I just wanted to point out that there is no magic formula or one course you can buy to learn everything you need to know to get started in cybersecurity. It’s more than just acquiring that basic knowledge, because as cybersecurity professionals, we are jack-of-all-trades, and you’ll see that from the material we will cover in this article.
We’re going to be starting this list with a couple of skills that are not technical. I know you clicked on this blog thinking that it was going to be all technical, like programming, networking, all of these. We’re going to be getting to that later in the video, but I think it’s important to stress these soft skills and these non-technical attributes that you must possess to do well in cyber security.
Interest in learning Cyber Security
The first point we are going to talk about is that you have to have a real interest in cybersecurity. I say this a lot, and it’s true when it comes to cybersecurity. Unlike many other fields where you show up to work every day and just work your butt off. Cybersecurity requires continuous learning. In most positions, you will be told that you need to pursue certification most of the time. You can take a little break between certifications, but for me, I complete one certification, take a little break, and then tackle the next one. On top of that, I do my own research and I am just very passionate about this field, so it all comes naturally to me. Take that as an example for yourself. It is a dedicated field. So you have to have a genuine interest to excel in this field.
Communication
Next, we’re going to be talking about communication. Communication is an extremely important attribute to have before getting into cyber security. Most of the functions that you’re going to have as a cyber security professional are going to be team-based. You have to know that how to interact with the team. And this is not a difficult prerequisite by any means, but you need to have solid work habits established before getting into cyber security.
You’ll have the opportunity to communicate with higher-level people, potentially C-level people, and that’s very interesting about cyber security. I cannot emphasize how important communication is in cyber security. Cyber is definitely more involved. You’re going to be doing this studying, so you might have to jump into incident response, so you just have to be, uh, you have to have a good work ethic and be willing to put in the time.
These are the basic skills that are needed before getting into cybersecurity. They help you a lot in future paths.
After this, we’re going to be getting into the technical nitty-gritty details that you need to know for cyber security.
Basic computer abilities
The technical skills and the first one that we’re going to be talking about is basic computer skills, and this might sound extremely obvious, but the industry of cyber security does require that you have a pretty good understanding of at least the basic fundamentals of computer skills. If that’s something that you might not be very confident about, I would suggest looking into the A+ certification. You don’t even have to take the A+ certification and actually go through the exam, but you could really just go on to something like Pluralsight.
You could watch an a-plus course. I can link to one of those in the description. I can also put a book that is an a-plus certification book and just run through these different objectives. Like I said before, you don’t have to take the actual exam. You don’t think that that’s another additional amount of money, but just make sure you’re familiar with these concepts. The plus really sums it up well and sets you up well to understand the basic security implications of these basic computer concepts.
Networking
Next, we are going to be talking about the number one skill that you must possess before entering the field of cyber security, and that is networking.
Networking is everything you’re going to hear me say a million times. I have to stress how important networking is for cyber security because pretty much everything that you’re going to be doing on a day-to-day basis is going to be dealing with networking.
If you’re a penetration tester, you need to understand extremely in-depth the ins and outs of networking to understand some workarounds to understand the tools that you’re using. If you are on the blue team side of things, you really really have to understand networking because you’re going to be getting alerts or you’re going to have to be doing engineering that is related to network vulnerabilities.
So a really good place to start with networking is to take the networking plus kind of like I said, the plus is you don’t even have to take the certification. So personally, way back when I was getting into networking and I was not very confident in networking, I bought a network plus book and I went through the entire book. I read it. I just didn’t take the exam. I just wanted to use the book and the course material as kind of a foundation for myself, but I knew that I was generally familiar with the concept. So it was more of a review just to make sure I had everything. If that sounds like a good route for you, consider trying to take something like a Pluralsight network plus course, or you can get the network plus study guide on amazon.
The next technical skill that we’re going to be talking about is programming, and you do not have to be an expert programmer.
You do not have to have a computer science degree, and you do not have to be developing full-scale applications. You don’t even need to be proficient in a single language at this introductory level of programming, so you really need to understand the ins and outs of programming and how it works at a basic level. just need to understand these basic concepts because you’re going to be working with, depending on the role you’re in, you’re going to be working with some various tools and you might have to make some slight modifications to those tools to suit your specific business needs. It’s also just understanding how to approach pro problems with programming. A programmatic mindset is extremely useful in cyber security.
Linux Fundamentals
Next, we’re going to be talking about Linux. Understanding the Linux operating system, as well as being able to navigate around Linux and use some Linux-specific tools, is extremely important in cyber security.
At some point in your cyber security career, pretty early on, you’re going to be introduced to Linux and you’re going to be kind of thrown into it. So I would say that I am just becoming familiar with the operating system. You just need to become familiar with the distribution like Kali Linux, and that will go a very long way for you. A good way to do this is to just get a virtual machine set up with Linux.
If you already have a Linux distribution setup in a virtual machine or you already have a laptop dual-booted, you might not know where to go from that because I clearly remember when I was first introduced to Linux, all I knew was basically ls and cd, and I would just type ls cd lscd whatever into different directories.
I thought I was so cool. If you’re looking for some more commands
In the back of your mind is that pretty much any technical information that you’re going to be learning about computers, networking, programming, any of this information is going to be valuable, so keep that stored in the back of your head because I can pretty much guarantee you that you’re going to call upon that at some time.
Summary
Let’s summarize what things you need to know before starting cuber security.
- Interest in learning Cyber Security
- Communication and team work
- Basic computer skills
- Networking
- Linux command line skill (learn linux)
Writer @sanzgrapher
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