10 Essential Skills You Need to Work in Cybersecurity
Reading Time: 4 minutesWant to work in cybersecurity? It’s not just technical know-how you need; here are some soft skills and tech knowledge that are key for IT experts.
Are you looking for a new job or trying to change careers? Cybersecurity is one area to consider.
Cybersecurity experts are highly sought after with good remunerations and incentives. But to be eligible for the job, you need to possess some key skills. So what do you need in order to be successful in cybersecurity?
Why Cybersecurity Workers Are in High Demand
The demand for cybersecurity workers is at an all-time high. Employers are in dire need of these workers because their businesses are at risk of attacks.
Every other day, there’s a story about a company that has suffered a security breach. Even government agencies with sophisticated defenses have been victims. This shows that no one is above an attack. They need to tighten their security to ward off attempts to break into their networks.
Hiring cybersecurity professionals is an urgent necessity for organizations that possess customers’ confidential data. Besides the financial losses that a business could suffer in a cyberattack, exposing its customers’ data will dent its reputation and ruin prospective business opportunities.
Engaging the services of cybersecurity workers is in the best interest of any organization that plans to stay in business for the long haul.
What Skills Do You Need to Work in Cybersecurity?
As much as organizations need cybersecurity workers, prospective workers must have certain skills to get those jobs. Since the goal of these companies is to secure their networks and digital assets, they’ll only hire candidates who can meet their needs.
There are two major skill sets you need to work in cybersecurity: soft skills and technical skills. Soft skills are attributes and character traits that enhance your ability to perform tasks; while technical skills are specialized knowledge you need to execute tasks.
Soft Skills
To thrive as a cybersecurity professional, you need the following soft skills.
1. Effective Communication
As a cybersecurity professional, you’ll be working with other people. The information you pass on to them and how they understand such information will impact your overall performance. You must be able to communicate effectively, especially when handling complex subjects. Your inability to communicate effectively can lead to misinterpretations and wrongful executions.
2. Critical Thinking
Complex issues abound in the day-to-day activities of a cybersecurity worker. You must be able to solve those problems efficiently with in-depth analysis and brainstorming.
To proffer effective and lasting solutions to security-related problems, you must understand the cause of those problems and tackle them from the root to prevent future recurrence.
3. Attention to Detail
Human error is responsible for many cyberattacks. And that’s because things slip through the cracks in the process of executing tasks.
Cybercriminals know better than to make their attacks obvious. They deploy different strategies to stay under the radar. You must be alert to all activities and take note of even the smallest detail to identify suspicious or malicious vectors.
4. Empathy
Victims of cyberattacks deal with fear before and after an attack. If you work in cybersecurity, you need to put yourself in their shoes to help them manage their emotions. With an empathetic mindset, you’ll have a better understanding of how the attack affects them and seek effective ways to minimize the impact.
The cybercriminals who execute these cyberattacks are humans too. To counter their tactics, you need to understand their thought process. Understanding how they reason will help you beat them at their own game.
5. Collaboration
Most organizations have more than one person on their cybersecurity team. And that’s because the field is so vast, it requires input from multiple people. You must be able to work with others civilly, as well as recognize the contributions of your teammates and work towards achieving your collective goals as a team.
Technical Skills
You need the following technical skills to complement your soft skills as a cybersecurity professional.
1. Networking and System Administration
The job of a cybersecurity professional is incomplete without networking and system administration skills. You must be knowledgeable about configuring networks and managing systems. It’s your responsibility to maintain a healthy network where your data sets are secure against sensitive data exposure and theft.
2. Programming (Coding and Scripting)
Cybercriminals have expert programming skills. If you are going to stop them from carrying out attacks, your programming skills must be top-notch too. You need to be knowledgeable in not just coding but making those codes execute specific instructions via scripting. You can even use coding games to learn programming in a fun way.
Automation plays an essential role in programming. You must be able to automate repetitive tasks using programming languages like Python.
3. Digital Forensics
Even when you put up your strongest security defenses, cyberattacks can still occur. Digital forensics empowers you to mitigate the effect of an attack by recovering compromised or lost data. It goes further to trace the source of the attack, and its operational tactics and then create a defense strategy to prevent a recurrence based on all the information you have about the attack.
4. Network Security Control
Access is an essential component of cybersecurity. You must be vast in network security control with a 360-visibility of your network to secure all access points and detect malicious traffic trying to gain entry. Some of these network security controls include the implementation of intrusion detection systems and firewalls.
5. Knowledge of Operating Systems
Cyberattackers have a mastery of different attack techniques for different operating systems (OSes) such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. They need to be experts in specific operating systems, discovering the best ways to execute attacks successfully without drawing attention.
To stop attackers, you must have expert knowledge of operating systems too, so that no matter what machine is targeted, you know your way around the OS.
Become Successful in Cybersecurity With the Right Skills
Cybersecurity is results-oriented. You can’t produce good results without the necessary skills for the job. Everyone can see when a cybersecurity professional knows their stuff as their work will speak for them.
A competent cybersecurity expert is an asset to any organization. You’ll get the opportunity to work under the best conditions and command the financial rewards you deserve.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/essential-skills-work-cybersecurity/
Ref: makeuseof
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