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A Guide on How to Get Into CyberSecurity

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20th Sep, 2023
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    A Guide on How to Get Into CyberSecurity

    Nowadays the common question to most individuals is “How we can get into the Cybersecurity domain?, What are the useful Cyber Security Courses? What are the ways to get inside this domain? Before entering this domain, what are the prerequisites for cyber security?” In this article, we will be covering the Cyber Security domain and the path to starting a career.

    What is Cyber Security?

    Cyber security is all about securing the data that exists in hardware, software, programs, application, servers, physical devices, network devices, etc. from cyber threats/attacks. Threats can be in any form physical or technological. All you need to keep in mind is, “CIA” should not be compromised at any cost. CIA refers to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Cyber Security is followed by companies, and individuals to keep the data safe and secure. In other words, it can also be referred as Information Security.

    At end of the day, what matters is that our data (it may be personal or official) is secure and has not been compromised. To monitor our data or to keep the data secure, Cyber Security plays a major role.

    Why is Cybersecurity Important?

    Security is nothing but securing something that is very important to us. Protecting our data can be classified as highly secret and confidential. It could be personal or organizational information. As the world is adopting digital media, cybercrime is ever increasing. We can protect our data by implementing Network Security, Data Security, Application Security, Physical Security, Cloud Security, Security Operations Center (SOC), SIEM solutions, Vulnerability Assessment, Penetration Testing across the Organization.

    The Path to Becoming a Cyber Security Expert

     Below mentioned are a few domains that are existing in cyber security.

    1. Security Operations Center
    2. Security Architecture Development
    3. Security Engineering
    4. Security Training 
    5. Threat Intelligence 
    6. Application Security 
    7. Cloud Security 
    8. Security Research & Content Development 
    9. Security Management 
    10. Governance, Risk and Compliance
    11. Identity and Access Management 
    12. Vulnerability Assessment 
    13. Penetration Testing 
    14. Cyber Forensics / Digital Forensics 
    15. Business Continuity 
    16. Disaster Recovery 
    17. Incident Response 
    18. Network Security 
    19. Physical Security 
    20. Malware Analysis 
    21. Reverse Engineering 
    22. Security Orchestration, Automation and Response

    All these domains are interlinked to others. Also, this is not a one-man job, all these domains need a group of people to work on each task parallelly. As the world is now getting adopted to work-from-home culture, cyber-attacks are rapidly increasing and leading the organization or employees to a greater threat. To prevent these attacks now and in the future, the demand for cyber security professionals is at its peak. A cyber security expert needs to have strong theoretical and working knowledge in at least 5 to 7 domains. You need to update your knowledge and learning as you progress in your position.

    How to Get into Cybersecurity if You Come from Another Technical Field

    When compared to Freshers, it is easy for an experienced candidate to switch the domain to Cyber Security if he has completed related certifications or courses. At that time of interview, he should be able to answer the cyber security related questions and work. The probability of getting job is high when compared to fresher level. You need to prepare yourself for the possible questions and keep your answers ready. It is always better to have a quick connect with the working people in the relevant domain for the FAQs about the job requirement. It will give an idea on what the management is expecting from the candidate.

    How to Get into Cyber Security if You Already Work in It

    As mentioned in the above paragraph, it is easy to get into the cyber security domain. You should make yourself aware of everything that is happening in Cyber security. For example, you should be able to explain the recent attacks that happened in the industry, how hackers have attacked, and how they can be prevented from the organization's point of view with possible security recommendations. If you are capable enough to do this, you will be the ideal candidate.

    How to Get Into Cyber Security if You Have No Technical Experience at All

    Before looking for any jobs in Cyber Security domain, you should ensure that below mentioned requirements are satisfied. 

    1. Must have a degree certificate that can be of any specialization (Even a civil engineer can get a job in this domain). 
    2. Dedicate your personal time to completing the courses on Cybersecurity topics. Many Free courses are available on various platforms.
    3. You could opt for paid cybersecurity certifications like online Certified Ethical Hacker course (CEH), CompTIA Security+, CompTIA CySA+, CISA, Cisco CCNA which will give strong knowledge about this security domain.
    4. You can start your career in any domain and later switch to security domain jobs. By following this method, you would avoid the working gaps in your path and can complete the certifications parallelly.
    5. Do some research and find your interest in which cyber security domain you want to start your career.
    6. Read cyber security-based blogs for recent threats and attacks that can give ideas about how hacking is performed and its execution.
    7. After deciding your domain of interest, search what are the skills required and what needs to be learnt. 
    8. Try to connect with the experts through the LinkedIn or related platform and know the requirements and industry expectations. 
    9. Start your learning and practice your skills. There are numerous ways to learn and practice. You can make use of TryHackMe website for practicing cybersecurity attacks. This will give you the practical knowledge rather than just learning the theory from various google sources.
    10. Once you have enough confidence that you can survive in the Cybersecurity domain, start preparing your resume. This is the step where majority of the people fail.
    11. Your resume should be unique and stand out of the crowd. Before your interaction with the recruiters, your resume will be portraying if you are fit for the job.
    12. Please pay attention while preparing resume. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind while preparing resume.
    13. Read the job description of the profile before preparing your resume.
    14. Specify only basic information about yourself. It should be in the form of short intro.
    15. Prepare unique & short summary.
    16. Mention the skills that are matching to the job description with the level of expertise whether you are at beginner or expert level. It can include both technical and non-technical.
    17. Mention your highest education details with the year of passing and percentage.
    18. Add the completed certifications/courses/training details along with the sponsor and year of completion.
    19. Feel free to add any relevant work experience.
    20. Refer sample resumes that can sometimes be useful in improving the quality of the content.
    21. Avoid copying the resume from others.
    22. Mention only the known skills.
    23. Avoid mentioning false statements in the work experience.
    24. The most important thing to do is to promote ourselves and make contacts while searching for jobs on LinkedIn. You need to learn LinkedIn or Job Searching sites in an efficient way. This paves a direct way to interact with the recruiters or even with the employees of any organization.
    25. If you find any requirement in any company, feel free to connect with any one of the working employees of that company and enquire about the job opening. If possible, ask them to refer your profile to the recruiting team internally. They will be doing that quickly and will follow up with the concerned team periodically as they will be rewarded with a referral bonus. At end of the day, all that matters is whether the recruiter has contacted us and scheduled the interview.
    26. Ask your friends or seniors to refer you for any position. As a fresher, it is very difficult to get shortlisted as the competition is larger than expected. Every year the probability of fresher getting job in IT field is becoming a question mark.
    27. Should make everyone aware that you are looking for a job to start your career, so someone can get your attention and contact you.
    28. Before attending any interview, be prepared and practice a lot of mock interviews on your own and rectify your weakness and strengths.
    29. Assess yourself on the topics that you are aware and address the knowledge gap.
    30. Always keep a roadmap to your vision.

    Demand for Cyber Security Jobs

    Nowadays, Cyber Security jobs are emerging, decisive, and valuable jobs in the digital world. Here you will be monitoring the whole organization infrastructure with respect to network devices, security controls, policies configured, user endpoints, etc to ensure the work environment is protected from cyber-attacks. But it is not limited to the monitoring side, rather it includes implementing best security practices for the organization, identifying threats and attacks on a first basis by taking respective actions, constantly performing assessments, and providing best security recommendations as well. Starting from the fresher level to Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), the requirement for each position is always present. All you need to do is be eager to learn and dedicate your time to learning and practicing.

    Basic Roles & Responsibilities of Cyber Security Jobs

    1. Basically, he/she will be looking for security incidents that are suspicious, unusual, and abnormal but not limited. A qualified security officer that will have answers to the questions (What, Where, How, Why, When).
    2. Below are some example scenarios where analysts will look for
    3. Who is accessing the data?
    4. What is the data they have accessed or trying to access?
    5. Are authorized to do the activity?
    6. When did the incident happen?
    7. How the incident occurred?
    8. Whether any alerts were triggered during the timeframe?
    9. Why did the security solutions not detect this incident?
    10. Was the communication allowed or blocked?
    11. He/he will be keeping an eye on the entire network covering from user machines, servers, network devices, cloud technologies, etc.
    12. Deploying Security solutions like SIEM, EDR, NDR, PIM / PAM / IAM, DLP, SOAR to the organizations and administering the platforms.
    13. To investigate any alerts, you need to think from the attacker perspective. It will give a proactive approach while creating new use cases for detection and implement security controls.

    How to Get a Job in Cyber Security

    The above-mentioned writings are all about how you should prepare yourself for the interview and how to create resume. Use the below links for searching jobs with the filters like Cyber Security, Information Security, Experience level, Cyber Security Skills, Cyber Security Domains etc.

    For Searching Jobs: 

    1. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/ 
    2. Naukri - https://www.naukri.com/ (for gulf countries - https://www.naukrigulf.com/)
    3. Indeed - https://www.indeed.com/ 
    4. AngelList - https://angel.co/ 
    5. Monster - https://www.monster.com/

    There are various platforms where you can get yourself certified in cyber security.

    1. IT Security certification course - Knowledgehut
    2. Ethical Hacking course- Knowledgehut  
    3. Cybrary
    4. TryHackMe
    5. LetsDefend

    For Cyber Security News & Updates: 

    1. GBHackers - https://gbhackers.com/ 
    2. The Hacker News - https://thehackernews.com/ 
    3. ThreatPost - https://threatpost.com/ 
    4. Cyware - https://cyware.com/cyber-security-news-articles 
    5. SecurityWeek - https://www.securityweek.com/ 
    6. Bleeping Computer - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ 
    7. Dark Reading - https://www.darkreading.com/

    Conclusion

    Getting into the Cyber Security domain is h, and you will feel the importance once you gain experience in this field. Remember this is the only field where the technology and terms are getting updated day by day. If you still need to be in this race, you need to update yourself periodically.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    1What is Cyber Security ?
    Cyber security is nothing but securing the data that exists in hardware, software, programs, application, servers, physical devices, network devices, etc from cyber threats / attacks. CIA of data or information should not be compromised.
    2Why is Cyber security Important?

    Nowadays the world is moving to the digital medium where nobody knows whether their data is fully protected and secure. In order to achieve that Cyber security plays a major role in everyone’s life. Each individual should know what they are accessing on the internet, what are the ways that our data can be exposed to anyone, and whether we have necessary protection controls in place.

    3What are the different job roles available in Cyber security domain ?

    Cyber Security Analyst, Cyber Security Engineer, Cyber Security Consultant, Security Architect, Malware Analyst, Incident Responder, Threat Analyst, Threat intelligence analyst, Auditor, Reverse Engineer, Penetration Tester, etc are some different job roles available in Cyber Security domain. For each role, the position ladder will be there from Junior level to Manager level. 

    4How to get into cybersecurity if you come from another technical field?

    If you are planning to change your job domain to Cyber Security, you must keep yourself updated on what’s happening in the Cyber World (Example: Latest Cyber Attacks and Threats evolved) and in the Cyber Market (Example: New technologies, new processes, new skills set of what people are expecting). Also have relevant certifications like CEH, CISA, CISSP or do cyber security courses at knowledgeHut. 

    5How to get into cyber security if you already work in IT?

    You should be able to explain the recent attacks that happened in the industry, how hackers have attacked, and how they can be prevented from the organization's point of view with possible security recommendations. 

    6How to get into cyber security if you have no technical experience at all?

    Must have a degree certificate that can be of any specialization (Even Civil Engineering people can get a job in this domain). Dedicate your personal time and complete courses on Cybersecurity topics. Many Free courses are available. You can opt for paid cybersecurity certifications like Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), CompTIA Security+, CompTIA CySA+, CISA, Cisco CCNA which will give strong knowledge about this security domain. 

    Profile

    Hariharann R

    Author

    I am a pragmatic security professional in SOC Operations & SIEM Engineering at CyberGate Defense, UAE with an Electronics and Telecommunication background. I am very much interested in SIEM Implementation, Threat Hunting, Creating Use Cases, Digital Forensics, Investigation and Analysis, etc. I spend my leisure time playing cricket, football and watch movies of various genres with friends. 

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