What Skills Do You Need for a Career in Cybersecurity?

To become an expert in cybersecurity you will need some or all of the following certifications and skills.

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) for competency in the design, implementation, engineering and management of information security programs.
• Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC). Certifications are available in several categories including Security Administration, Forensics, Audit, Management, Legal, Software Security and GSE.
• ISACA Certifications are professional certifications available in IT Audit, Security, Governance and Risk.
• CompTIA Security covers essential principles for network security and risk management.

There are also other ‘soft skills’ that are required to work in this field.

• Communication Skills

Cybersecurity professionals must have strong written and verbal communications skills. Jobs in the field require the ability to communicate clearly and concisely.

• Integrity and Discretion

By its very nature, working in the cybersecurity field requires sensitivity to an organisation’s security vulnerability issues and be able to tackle those issues in a way that engenders trust.

• Programming Skills

A variety of scripts and programming tools are required to design effective security programs and analyse cyber-attacks and breaches. Experience in system and network programming is a must.

• Understanding of Security Principles

An understanding of basic security principles, such as privacy, confidentiality, authentication, access control, and others, results in a greater chance that systems will be less vulnerable to failures and attacks.

• Risk Analysis

Cybersecurity personnel must be able to assess a client’s particular security needs in light of its organisational goals, which requires knowledge of risk analysis principles.

• Malicious Codes

Additionally, cybersecurity professionals need a working knowledge of malicious codes, how they are propagated and the risks associated with each.

• Intruder Techniques

In analysing attacks, personnel should be able to recognise known intruder techniques, their characteristics and effects, and identify new intruder techniques using elimination of known ones.

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