6 Skills You Need to Succeed in Cybersecurity

In today's cyber world, with increasing technological innovations come increasing security challenges. Brands world over are digitizing their processes to keep up with technological demands. New innovations do not, however, come without new vulnerabilities.  As hackers are growing smarter by the day, companies are looking for the smartest hand to help secure their systems from their threats.

The place of the seasoned cybersecurity expert has never been elevated until this time as businesses are ready to pay handsomely to have the best brain on their team train.  So, have you been considering the position of a cybersecurity expert?  Here are 6 handy skills that can make you the Sherlock Holmes of the cybersecurity empire.

1. Malware Analysis and Reversing

In the cybersecurity space, malware is used to invade computer systems and cause procedural disruptions and getting to locate them early can be the pathway to a quick recovery. Often, the longer a system has been infected, the more devastating its effects.

Brands across the globe know this and are therefore on the lookout for security experts capable of discovering intrusion quickly as well as reversing the effects they cause. As a cybersecurity enthusiast, being able to quickly detect malware is a requisite skill to career success, and like it, cushioning the effect of intrusion by initiating reversal action puts you at the very top of the paradigm.

2.  Think Like the bad guys

You can't catch the bad guys if you don't think like them. You need to be able to anticipate moves, create possible problematic models and scenarios, read trends and predict their ends to stay relevant in you want to succeed in cybersecurity.

It is often more professional to anticipate the cyberattacks before they happen and create ready-made responses that nullify them. Often, cybersecurity experts use penetrative testing to achieve this status. Penetrative testing involves the continual probing of possible loopholes even while the system is running perfectly.

Mastering Kali Linus can improve your skill in penetrative testing. This way you can see loopholes in your company's system before your attackers get hold of them.

3. Cloud Security

The recent attack on cloud storage makes skills in cloud security the toast of many brands. It could be in the form of data breaches, malicious insiders, hacked accounts, partial or total takeover, however you choose to see it, attack on cloud networks are increasing at light speed.

In 2016, ESG, a research firm in the US reported a skyrocketing increase in the demand for cybersecurity experts with competence in cloud security, this shows the commonness of cloud attacks and the increasing need to have skilled cyber soldiers tackling these threats.

As a cybersecurity enthusiast, your worth increases with seasoned expertise in containing cloud security threats. Else, mastering cloud security is one of your gateways in becoming a cybersecurity expert of repute.

4.  Enviable Knowledge of Programming

Quite frankly, hardly is there any cybersecurity expert without enviable knowledge of computer programming. They are versatile with several programming languages since most of the programs the brands they work with run on them.

In becoming a successful cybersecurity expert, high competence in programming is required. You'll need it to understand the threat of your attackers, and to fight it off. The knowledge of programming will also better equip you to create contingency solutions for future attacks.

Proficiency in languages such as C++, Java, PHP, Perl, and Shell can put you at the frontier of cybersecurity expertise.  Having concrete knowledge about system architecture, administration, and management, including in software virtualization will also be handy.

5. Security Tools and Security Analysis

In your quest to become a successful security expert, you must identify and master security tools, as well as the skillset of a security analyst

Of a truth, you can't do much without the necessary tools to combat privacy invasion or a system hack. Software such as Webrook and Cryptosense Analyzer are a few of the arsenal you must possess.

As is possessing these tools, having mastery of their use is thoroughly dependent on your security analysis skillset. As a budding cybersecurity enthusiast, the skill of a security analyst is of high importance on your journey to success.

The knowledge of security analysis will help you understand the conditions that make attacks very likely and how to mitigate them.

6. Future-Proof Encryption

The future, whether we like to agree or not, is a step away, and it will only favor the proactive cybersecurity enthusiast. New technologies are taken root every sunrise, and technologies of a lifetime are quickly becoming antiquated within a very short period due to rapid development. The need to peep into the future and foresee the possible problems of the cybersecurity space can define who becomes successful in the future and who doesn't.

Encryption has always been the way to keep cyberspace safe, but with the potential of explosive technologies like quantum computing (which is of course still in infancy) the game is expected to change with a wide margin. Even now, cybersecurity enthusiasts who can see a few meters into encryption needs of tomorrow's system are tipped to be at the very apex of the industry's ladder.

Becoming the choice of cybersecurity genius requires persistent hard work and an uncanny desire for knowledge. This is because of the security space changes fast, as new threats are emerging in their tens daily, new knowledge is required to overcome them.

Beyond having the best cybersecurity certification at hand, constant learning and unrivaled passion are necessary to stay afloat. Successful cybersecurity experts often sign up for new courses, share ideas with their team members, and create models of problems and solve them even before they surface.

Cybersecurity Instructor

Christopher Miller

Christopher has 7 years of experience in the STEM and IT field, particularly with high school and colleges. Working with FIRST, an NGO that designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering...