The top five cybersecurity skills in 2021 | Cyber Security Career in 2021

Today, a cybersecurity career is highly promising. This article will give you an insight into the most important cybersecurity skills and the role it plays in a cybersecurity professional's career. So, let's begin!

With businesses moving online and shifting to cloud storage. Currently, the demand for cybersecurity is at its peak with that comes a high demand for cybersecurity experts who can safeguard digital data.

On that note hey guys welcome to yet another exciting article in this article I bring you the top five cybersecurity skills in 2021 So let's get started!

According to cybercrime magazine by cybersecurity ventures globally there would be nearly 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021 and the number of internet users will hit a whopping 6 billion by 2022. 

These numbers speak volumes and this shows the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals across the globe. Now that you know the high demand for cybersecurity professionals let us help you start your cybersecurity career by bagging the top 5 right cybersecurity skillset.

Many of you out there might be waiting to become a cybersecurity professional but are unsure of how to go about it and what skills you would need to get a cybersecurity job. 

1. NETWORKING AND SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

The number one skill you need to have to enter the field of cybersecurity is COMPUTER NETWORKING - Networking is the backbone of the internet you must have an in-depth understanding of networking to start a career in cybersecurity.

A network is a group of interconnected devices and networking is the art of understanding how data is sent, transmitted, and received amongst these devices. You need to know various routing protocols the TCP/IP and OSI models govern networking.

The OSI model is comparatively newer basically in these models all the protocols are grouped into layers and work together to help you receive data on your device sent from a server. Learning networking will help you understand the technical aspects of data transmission which will help you secure your data. 

You can take up networking certifications like security plus and cisco CCNA to gain a strong networking foundation.

Another skill that will be beneficial for you is TO MASTER SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION - If you think about it all of us are cis admins at some level. 

System Administration - It is all about configuring and maintaining computers you must be curious to know every aspect of your computer features and settings and play around a bit. 

Carry out a trial and error method and give yourself small tasks like recovering deleted files or monitoring old viruses on a VM, explore new techniques put them into use, and expand your knowledge.

2. KNOWLEDGE OF OPERATING SYSTEMS AND VIRTUAL MACHINES

To become a cybersecurity professional you need to have a strong knowledge of operating environments such as windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

Cybersecurity professionals largely use Linux and it comes with several tools. To learn operating systems go ahead and set up and use virtual machines that are VMS and play around with them this will help you gain hands-on experience. As a cybersecurity expert, you should be comfortable working on any OS.

VMS allows you to train and research in an isolated environment and help you maximize your skills.

The next point to remember is to know KALI LINUX is the most widely known Linux distribution for ethical hacking and penetration testing. It comes with several hundred tools related to penetration testing, malware analysis, security research, computer forensics, and so on.

Kali contains several projects and you can learn a lot another good thing about kale is that it is free to use so what are you waiting for download and start right away. Remember that Linux is the backbone of cybersecurity and a commonly asked topic for cybersecurity interviews especially for pen testing roles.

3. NETWORK SECURITY CONTROL

It is another basic skill that every cybersecurity professional should have. Network security control refers to the different measures which are employed to enhance the security of a network. It is simple you can only safeguard your network if you know how it works, how routers firewalls, and other devices work.

A firewall is a hardware or software that blocks incoming or outgoing traffic from the internet to your computer. Firewalls are required to secure a network as a cybersecurity expert you must be able to leverage a firewall to filter and prevent unauthorized traffic onto the network. 

In addition to that as a cybersecurity expert, you must know about intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, virtual private networks, and remote access.

An intrusion detection system IDS is designed to detect unauthorized access to a system. It is used together with a firewall and a router you should be able to operate the IDS and recognize any security policy violations and malicious traffic on the network. 

As many of you may have used a VPN is a connection between a VPN server and a VPN client is a secure tunnel across the internet.

4. CODING

So you might be wondering if coding is really required to become a cybersecurity professional well it is true that not all cybersecurity professionals have or need coding skills however having zero coding knowledge may limit your opportunities in the future.

Knowing a couple of programming languages will help you identify the plan behind an attack and defend against deadly hacking techniques. We have C and C++. 

The C programming language is the backbone of most operating systems C and C ++ are low-level programming languages that you need to know as a cybersecurity professional.

On the other hand, PYTHON is a high-level programming language that is becoming popular among cybersecurity experts today knowing python will give you an upper hand in your career. It will help you identify and fix vulnerabilities 

JAVASCRIPT is another high-level programming language that adds interactivity to web pages. A good advantage of knowing javascript is that you can prevent cross-site scripting attacks from occurring. As in these attacks, the attacker implants malicious code in a web application.

Speaking of PHP because most of the websites are created using PHP learning it will help you defend against intruders. 

Similarly, HTML is another language cybersecurity professionals should understand as most websites use it and it is one of the easiest languages to learn.

Another programming language that you can use is GOLANG it is great for Cryptography you can solve various cybersecurity problems with it.

Then we have SQL that is a structured query language. Attackers use this language to damage the stored data.

One such example is the SQL injection attack hence having a good understanding of SQL will be highly beneficial.

Another point I'd like to highlight is to have knowledge of assembly language this will help you become a cybersecurity engineer assembly will help you understand how malware functions and thereby help you defend against it.

In the cybersecurity domain, you can't just lock into a single language and hence it is advised that you're acquainted with a couple of them. You can also do a crash course for these languages and learn them. Hence determine the best programming language for your cybersecurity role and get familiar with the basics.

If you want to know the Best Top 10 Programming Languages For 2021 then make sure to check my new article on Best Top 10 Programming Languages For 2021

5. CLOUD SECURITY

There is a growing demand for cybersecurity professionals with cloud security skills in the coming years. Companies are on the lookout for professionals with security skills applicable to public and hybrid cloud platforms such as Amazon web services, and Microsoft AZURE 

More organizations look to cloud infrastructure to store data and run applications this includes the implementation of policies and technologies that protect cloud-based systems and devices just like application development security. Cloud security also involves building secure systems from the start. 

Companies want professionals who can manage the cloud security tools to identify and prevent any cloud breaches. People with experience and knowledge in managing big platforms such as Microsoft AZURE, Amazon web services (Aws), and the GCP are in high demand.

Now that we have seen The top five cybersecurity skills let us go through a set of additional skills that can help you get into the cybersecurity field.

Remember that to become a successful cybersecurity expert you must possess a rich and diverse skill set. 

So in a list of additional skills

• Risk analysis - Identifying risks even before their arrival is a great skill. Cybersecurity professionals are required to identify manage and mitigate risks. Risk management and mitigation is a skill set that is going to be highly in demand in the coming years.

• Information security - Companies require skilled professionals who can protect their electronic data from unauthorized taxes. Here in-demand skills are authentication, authorization, malware analysis, and data recovery.

• Security incident handling and response - As a cybersecurity expert, you must be prepared to handle any forthcoming threat of violating an organization's security policy. By following an updated incident response plan your team can proactively protect your data and minimize the damages. In insecurity incident management you are required to identify manage, record, and analyze security threats in real-time. 

• A security incident can be an active threat or a successful compromise of data or an attempted intrusion. It can also be incidents like DDOS attacks, phishing, apts, ransomware, and many more.

• Another important pointer is that as a security practitioner you must also manage and analyze the security information and event management siem tools and services.

• SECURITY AUDIT - Security auditing is an internal check that is carried out to find flaws in the organization's information system. You must be able to conduct a review of the organization's adherence to regulatory guidelines. 

• Security audit and compliance knowledge are very crucial as any missed area of regulatory compliance could lead to hefty penalties. Soon organizations will need people who are more familiar with the various data privacy regulations, if you are good at the paperwork you can capitalize on this skill.

• Companies will need people who can understand what paperwork to file and which security protocols to use to comply with the regulations.

• Laws and Regulations - There are several cybersecurity laws and regulations and if you break these laws intentionally or not it doesn't matter as you will still be charged. 

These laws define how you can use the internet and it also defines how people can be protected from becoming the victims of cybercrimes. Knowing these laws and regulations and following the best practice will make you ethical at your job and this will in turn be good for your organization.

So those were our list of additional skills apart from these make sure you stay updated with new hacks and learn new tools as cybersecurity is ever-evolving.