Do you want to break into Cybersecurity? It can be a difficult thing to do, especially in such a saturated job market, but in todays article I’m going to outline three key steps you can take to get into this lucrative and rewarding field.
Build Foundations
If you’re totally new, the first thing you need to do to when getting into Cybersecurity is build some solid foundations. Cybersecurity is an extremely broad field, but like any other field, it has some base level knowledge of hardware, software and concepts that you’ll need to know if you want to be successful. These include things like what different physical hardware is on computers, what the different 3 primary operating systems work, basic network knowledge, and concepts like the CIA Triad.
💡 For those that don’t already know, the CIA Triad is the goal of cybersecurity data protection. To ensure the Confidentiality, Availability, and Integrity of data.
If you’re first starting out, you probably have 0 experience in Cybersecurity, and there is a slight chance that also means in technology in general. (Beyond basic literacy of computers.) If so it can be hard to know what to study, but there’s a few things that can help.
The first things you’ll want to study (apart from watching YouTube content like this) is the CompTIA A+. CompTIA is a reputable certification company with commonly known tests for various domains in IT. They are commonly known to be pretty basic and beginner level, but if you’re first starting out that’s exactly what you need!
The CompTIA A+ covers basic IT and help desk knowledge. In studying for that exam you’ll learn things like what computers are, what the different operating systems are. The super basic principles of data storage, networking, and a little of how a help desk functions.
After that, there are two certifications you can study for. One is the CompTIA Security+. This one is really great as its a qualification for a US DOD Security clearance (At a minimum. Other certs also apply here for even higher levels.) Studying for this certification will teach you basic security concepts, getting more advanced than what’s covered in the A+ but still sticking at a pretty basic level. Back when I took this exam at least, it wasn’t very hands-on or technical, which can be a problem with certifications, but is fine when you’re just learning the basic concepts and core-principles of Cybersecurity. Professor Messer has some great training for all of the CompTIA core exams like A+, Network+, and Security+. I watched his videos when preparing for those exams and it really gives you a great run through of everything you need to know.
The other option is the Certified in Cybersecurity Certification by ISC(2). It’s currently the more affordable option. Free actually, with some training provided by ISC(2). I’ll link that training below. I don’t have personal experience with this exam, but ISC(2) is a very reputable company and it looks to be targeted for beginners in the security space.
After you’ve covered the basic hardware and software knowledge and you’ve got that down and perhaps even certified in it with the A+ and Security+, it’s time to look at expanding your horizons yet again with some knowledge of Networking. I’ve noticed there tends to be two types of people in Cybersecurity, those who have a heavier Networking background / skillset, and those who have a Systems Administration background / skillset. Basically some people are more skilled with networking knowledge, while others are more knowledgable on the operating system and perhaps even programming side of things. If you’re just getting started I’d recommend starting with networking knowledge as the SysAdmin aspect at least comes with time easier than networking does at least in my experience. For networking there are two certifications that I recommend: The CompTIA Network+ or the Cisco CCNA. The Network+ is going to be much much easier to obtain, and it’s value in the industry seems to me to be reflected accordingly. I’ve never had anyone in a job interview really regard the fact that I had the Network+ as anything significant, while the CCNA seems from my research to be much more rigorous and therefore come with more respect in the industry.
Build Security Knowledge and Skills
Certifications
Now that you’ve built your foundations, it’s time to expand your skillset in security! Before we jump in to what I recommend you do to increase your Cybersecurity skills I want to discuss certifications and why I’m promoting them so much.
While a lot of practical skills especially are built on the job, or through other means we’ll discuss later, I took a lot of security related certifications and find them to be incredibly valuable. My reasoning for this is rather simple.
Certifications give you a structured learning path to a specific goal. When first starting out in cybersecurity it might be very difficult to know what to learn. Most of my learning now consists of increasing my skillset related to my role at work, pursuing certifications, or developing this channel/blog. In the beginning you likely don’t have any of these, and starting out without a clear goal in mind can make studying cybersecurity pretty daunting. You don’t know what you don’t know, so it can be hard to discern what you should know.
Certifications also do something else, they help demonstrate that you have a specific set of knowledge. It is however with many of them up to you to actually study for the certification and not just brain dump the knowledge. I highly recommend utilizing a note-taking framework like Zettlekasten using Obsidian during your study process to help you be able to retain this information. If you’re interested in a blog-post or video on how I’m doing that now let me know in the comments below. Be warned that you will probably be asked questions about the subject matter of certifications you have in interviews, so properly learning the material is vitally important.
For advancing your security knowledge and skills there are a few exams that I’ve taken, and others that from my research seem to be quite beneficial.
The CompTIA CySA+ is a great exam to teach you security is like from the perspective of a SOC Analyst. It covers a lot of common scenarios and knowledge you need to succeed in that position. I took it and posted a review several years ago linked here. Likely the exam content has changed somewhat since then but overall it was a solid exam.
At this point you’ll be considering one of two paths. Offensive or Defensive Security. Aka Red or Blue Team work. Red Team (including pentesting) is ethical hacking and documenting your findings for SOC teams to remediate, while Blue Team is the remediation and defense of your organization’s network from cyber attacks. I personally wanted to go into red-teaming to begin with, but realized this subset of cybersecurity requires a ton of knowledge and has a lot lower demand for jobs than blue-team roles do.
I’d recommend starting with some courses / certifications from TCM Security for Red-teaming related knowledge and skills. They have a Junior OSINT Researcher exam which is useful for both sides. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is useful for researching targets for pentesting and also for researching potential adversaries, their tactics and IOC’s to watch for and block in your SOC environment. Then they have a Junior Penetration Tester and Network Penetration Tester exam for those who opt for the red-teaming route. I also recommend checking out HackTheBox Academy for training on network penetration testing.
Security Blue Team has three exams, the Certified Blue Team Level 1 and 2, and Certified Security Operations Manager certification. These also have accompanying courses and I’ve heard good things about them as well for blue-team related training.
Degrees
The second option to use to build your security knowledge, that can help you land more jobs in Cybersecurity is degrees. I want to emphasize that degrees are NOT REQUIRED in IT and you can do perfectly fine without them, however in my experience in most organizations the degrees help you pass the “HR Firewall”, demonstrate knowledge, and overall my studies during them did contribute to my knowledge that I use today in security. The best place I can recommend for Cybersecurity degrees is by far Western Governors University also known as WGU. Their Bachelors of Cybersecurity is unbeatable for the cost (though I recommending taking CLEP tests and other classes to transfer in to reduce time spent at actual university for general credits). They are fully accredited, but their tuition is only around $4,000 for a 6 month term in which you can complete as many classes as possible based on your schedule. Some people take the normal 3-4 years for their degree, and others are able to transfer in many courses and complete their degree in 6-12 months! It all depends on you, your knowledge, and your schedule!
The great thing about these degrees are that they come with certifications. The WGU Bachelors of Cybersecurity and Information Assurance comes with the ITIL Foundations certification, CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Project+, CySA+, and Pentest+ certification, the Linux Professional Institute Linux Essentials certification, and the ISC(2) CCSP and SSCP certifications!
Meanwhile the Masters of Cybersecurity and Information Assurance comes with the CompTIA CySA+, Pentest+, and CASP+ certifications, the ISACA CISM certification, and the ISC Certified in CyberSecurity certification.
These certifications help validate your knowledge and experience to employers in addition to the degrees they come with, so it’s a 2 for 1 benefit in my opinion! As a side note: If you have any current certifications those can count for some of their classes which can potentially save you more time!
Demonstrate Experience
Finally the third thing that will help you by far when getting into Cybersecurity is demonstrating your experience to potential employers. If you don’t have a job that might sound impossible, but trust me it’s not! Of course degrees and certifications prove you have knowledge, but unless you’re taking some of the more “practical” certifications outlined above then you may be at a loss for how to demonstrate experience.
Enter: Home labs. Home labs are the best way to experiment around and demonstrate experience through executing and documenting various projects. You could document them through YouTube videos, blog posts, or just extensive note taking. GitHub is also a great way to demonstrate coding experience if you’re going more of that route!
I highly recommend setting up a home lab using Fedora Linux Server Edition on a spare computer, or perhaps running VirtualBox or Hyper-V on a Windows / Mac. I encourage you to set up a Linux System like Arch Linux as it makes you learn all the ins and outs of Linux. Set up various security appliances such as PiHole, OPN-Sense, Splunk, Security Onion, and many other tools. Learn those tools, take notes on them and really experiment around! GNS3 is a great way to simulate networking and virtual appliances as well and it can let you emulate more enterprise-style environments to increase your home-lab experience even more! I personally haven’t dealt with it yet but I plan to dive into it soon! HackTheBox as I mentioned before and TryHackMe are great places to demonstrate practical red-team experience and a few different blue-team exercises present on their platforms allow you to demonstrate and learn defensive knowledge as well!
Conclusion
I hope you guys have found this post helpful and a great primer to get you started on your journey into Cybersecurity! I tried my best to cover everything I could think of that a beginner needs to know concerning the path to take to get into Cybersecurity. Please lets continue this discussion in the comments as I love being able to see your thoughts and opinions, and you may offer valuable insight for other readers as well. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for the video version of these posts and sign up for my email newsletter to get notified whenever I post a new article. I’ll see you in the next one!
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