The best way into Cyber Security Career.
The main hurdle for someone to learn cybersecurity is not knowing where to start. The internet is vast with plenty of resources to refer to. Having resources in abundance with no guidance of where to start from is like having no resources. Let us start to guide you where to start here.
Firstly, What is cyber security?
In simple words, It protects the privacy of data and hardware that handles, stores, and transmits that data. Examples of Information security include User Authentication and Cryptography. Network security aims to protect the usability, integrity, and safety of a network, associated components, and data shared over the network.
In cyber security, There are so many things to learn but first, you need to learn about Networking concepts how networking works like TCP, UDP. how data packet transfer from one device to another device and also layers of networking.
Additionally, some basic concepts that you need to know are:
- Computer basics
- Programming languages more and more ..(especially python)
- Computer networking
- Different types of operating systems…mainly Linux cmd basics
- Kali Linux
- Keep update yourself about new types of phishing techniques and other cyber attacks.
Once you have a good understanding of these topics, you can get into exploring cybersecurity.
Here are some books to help you start your cyber security journey:
- The Art of Invisibility.
- Hacking: The Art of Exploitation.
- Cult of the Dead Cow.
- Ghost In The Wires.
- The Code Book.
And next, create a blueprint for yourself. This blueprint should help you in reaching your goal if followed. The Blueprint should depend upon factors such as,
- What side of Cyber Security do you want to be on? Defensive side (protecting against hackers), Offensive side (Legal Hacking, breaking into customers networks), or Forensics, malware analysis, etc.
- What experience or training do you have already, if any.
- What is your budget for getting education and training?
- How soon do you want to meet your goal?
After creating the blueprint, the most important part is to follow it. This is the part where most people give up. Keep practicing and keep learning. Try implementing various encrypting and decrypting algorithms.
The key takeaway is to have the basic concepts clear. Certifications DO NOT matter. Certifications are like icing on the cake but without cake, you have no value for icing. Cyber Security is a specialization and in order to ace that you need to have very strong fundamentals.
Never give up and keep learning and you will see yourself as a cyber security specialist.
