Top 10 skills to become a cyber security professional

As technologies come and go with the snap of a finger, it is imperative for a cybersecurity expert to keep pace with the latest from the world of cyberthreats. As the state of technology is evolving, so are the vulnerabilities and the number of cyberattacks.

This also means that cybersecurity experts can enjoy a lot of success in their careers, mainly because enterprises are ready to pay handsome salaries to those that bolster their digital security. Here are eight skills that cybersecurity experts need to make it big in their careers.

1. Intrusion detection

Powerful trojans and backdoor codes are looking to steal confidential information by bypassing the security wall of authentication.

A single data breach could cause a company to lose millions. Intrusion detection software must be stronger than the malware threatening to penetrate systems. Hence, there’s a need for cybersecurity experts to stay savvy on the technological front.

Two of the latest and most recognized certifications to accomplish this are Certified Information Security Manager and Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

Look for training in these courses and get certified. These certifications can help secure for you high paying jobs in terrific companies provided you conform to the other requirements of the job profile.

Related post: Top 5 free and paid cyber security courses

2. Malware analysis and reversing

Malware intrusion is a serious issue. Security pros are required to stay proactive in their approach and to develop their skills in digital threat management. Also, cybersecurity experts need to strengthen their skills in business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

It is absolutely essential for a company to make a speedy recovery almost immediately in the wake of an attack and resume business. Cybersecurity experts who offer this type of confidence and control to companies are in huge demand. Therefore, expertise in malware analysis holds a lot of promise for growth.

3. Programming know-how

Basic understanding of programming languages is critical for any cybersecurity expert. This helps them gauge the possibility of attacks on the system and to develop counter-measures accordingly. Not only does programming knowledge equip them to fight the threat, but also it is essential to develop more concrete contingency plans in the future.

So, this calls for a sound grasp of languages such as C, C++, PHP, Perl, Java, and Shell for them to better understand the backend of a system. Apart from this, cybersecurity experts need sound knowledge of system architecture, administration, and management of operating systems, virtualization software, and networking.

4. Thinking like a black hat

People often say that if you want to make your house theft-proof, hire the best thief in town. Similarly, to be able to secure a system thoroughly, it is very important to think like a hacker or a black hat (there is even a stellar tech hacking movie called “Blackhat”). Offensive cybersecurity is gaining more and more traction, and for good reason.

It is often more useful to anticipate an attack and prepare for the contingency, instead of doing the damage control afterward.

Penetration testing is the right way to accomplish this objective. Having a proactive approach towards security is extremely important for a cybersecurity expert. Kali Linux is a great platform to master, for the purpose of penetration testing.

5. Building a well-rounded skillset

Distributed denial of service, ransomware, and many more advanced persistent threats are easily able to bypass the feeble security provided by outdated technologies.

So, it is essential for cybersecurity experts to equip their cybersecurity arsenal with all the new up and coming technologies.

Build a well-rounded skill set with skills ranging from penetration testing, IOT security, network security, identity, and access management, to other cyber-governance related soft-skills. This enables the security experts to build upon their foundation and branch out even further, into leadership roles.

6. Risk analysis and mitigation

Identifying risks before the onset of a threat is a very useful practice. A cybersecurity expert is therefore required to identify risks, track identified risks, and discover new risks throughout the progression of projects.

This requires a certain amount of foresight and attention to detail as one needs to foresee the kind of threats and attacks that can befall the system and think of possible solutions to effectively mitigate the problem.

As per a survey report by Intel Security, risk mitigation is one of the skills that most companies will consider outsourcing in the years to come. This means fat checks for those information security experts possessing this particular skill, across the globe.

7. Cloud security

According to a 2016 survey report by research firm ESG, demand for cloud security skills is very high. This can be attributed to the shortage of cloud security experts in one-third of the respondent companies.

It is a highly coveted skill as the number of cloud attacks is ever increasing. The cloud is susceptible to a lot of dangerous attacks like data breaches, hijacked accounts, malicious insiders, and many more.

This itself testifies to the increasing need for security professionals to expand their horizons by mastering cloud security. So, cloud security is one skill to acquire for a promising and lucrative career in the field of cybersecurity.

8. Security analysis

Most security professionals start out by working as information security analysts. Security analyst is an important designation in almost every company. As per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of information security analyst jobs is expected to increase by 28 percent between 2016 and 2026.

Their responsibilities are increasing with the exponential increase in cyberattacks on businesses over the past few years. And therefore, the demand for security analysts is high.

Cybersecurity experts should have a thorough knowledge of analyzing the security options available and building innovative solutions using them.

9. Future-proof encryption

Know the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption? Why key size matters? How much compute power would be required to break X encryption type? Why Moore’s law is important as it relates to encryption? Or how China managed to become the world’s foremost Bitcoin mining region?

Each encryption type’s breakability is only as strong as its algorithm and key size. While, at present, breakable encryption types have been decommissioned or their key sizes updated to ensure they are currently still safe, there is something more interesting around the corner.

Quantum computing is an entirely different style of compute power that could render much of today’s encryption unuseable. While quantum computing is in its infancy, developing new encryption styles to manage this hyper-compute power will be necessary.

At present, being an encryption expert is a clever field as you’ll be able to advise companies of the right encryption for their needs, the safety it provides, and how to use it.

10. SecOps is the new DevOps

Love the practice, ideology, and efficiency of DevOps? Then you might just love SecOps. Much as DevOps has managed to effectively coordinate development and operations through a set of processes, automations, and tools, SecOps aims to do the same with the cybersecurity team and operations (and even the dev team as well).

Building in processes, automations, and tools into the software development lifecycle will ease friction between security, devs, and ops. While some DevOps tools and practices already have security built-in (like containerisation), we are more likely to see intelligent security-as-a-service products for software development emerging.

As Balakrishnan says, “Cybersecurity experts will have to expand to speak and understand the language of data scientists, and accelerate the protection and defence strategies through ways of automating operations.”

Becoming a cybersecurity expert

So, the aforementioned traits are of paramount importance for any cybersecurity expert to have, in the view of dramatic and lightning-fast changes happening in the world of technology.

These skills, in addition to the mandatory skills required to be an expert in cybersecurity, set one apart from the rest. This naturally results in more opportunities in the security domain and a more lucrative career for you.