In today’s digital age, technology touches every part of our lives. From personal communication to global commerce, cybersecurity is more important than ever. This beginner-friendly guide, “Getting Started in Cybersecurity,” is here to make your journey easier. It simplifies complex ideas into clear, manageable steps. Plus, it offers practical tips to help you start your career in this rapidly growing field.
Are you intrigued by the thrill of ethical hacking? Maybe you’re passionate about safeguarding sensitive information. Or perhaps you’re seeking a dynamic and rewarding career. Cybersecurity provides endless opportunities in all these areas. To start your journey, it’s essential to explore the various fields within cybersecurity and see how they match your interests.
Areas of Coverage
From hospitals to stock exchange, education to e-commerce, security has become critical part of every sector. It is important to know that the cybersecurity now is not just confined to IT sector. Rather it has expanded to all sectors including the following
- Healthcare
- Finance and Banking
- Retail and E-Commerce
- Telecom
- Energy
- Education
- Transport
HOW & WHAT
As the demand for cybersecurity professionals grows across sectors, finding experts with the right skills is challenging. At the same time, beginners eager to start their careers often feel unsure about where to begin or what to learn first. While it may feel overwhelming at first, you’ll see your skills improve as you gain more knowledge and experience.
Cybersecurity is a huge domain. Perhaps, when most of the people talk about it, they refer to the term HACKER. While majority of the people think of this title as abusing and non-ethical, but the truth is opposite. HACKER refers to someone who thinks outside of the box. They are creative problem-solvers who think outside the box. They use unconventional methods to tackle challenges. Often, they find innovative solutions that others might overlook. It’s all about the intentions that people carry.
Domains
Although, there are many sub-domains in cyber security that people often overlook or not even know about them. Cybersecurity can be broadly divided into three main categories:
- Offensive
- Defensive
- Research Oriented
Offensive
Offensive security, often referred to as ethical hacking, focuses on actively testing and probing systems for vulnerabilities before malicious attackers can exploit them. Professionals in this field, such as penetration testers, simulate cyberattacks to identify weaknesses in networks, applications, or infrastructure. The goal is to understand potential attack vectors and fix them proactively, improving the overall security posture.
Defensive
On the other hand, defensive security focuses on protecting systems and data from cyberattacks. This includes key strategies such as securing networks and encrypting sensitive data. It also involves setting up firewalls and monitoring for suspicious activity. Additionally, defensive security experts respond effectively to incidents. Security analysts and incident responders work to minimize damage from breaches, ensure compliance with security policies, and maintain business continuity.
Research Oriented
Research oriented domain revolves around theoretical hypotheses and then proves via practical approach Proof of Concepts. The scholars, security experts, and practitioners conduct in-depth studies to develop new techniques, tools, and methodologies aimed at improving security systems. They also try to find loopholes in the existing systems and applications which are called zero-days.
All of these approaches are essential for creating a comprehensive security strategy, with offensive tactics helping identify risks, while defensive methods ensure ongoing protection. Research helps in finding new attack vectors to aid both offensive and defensive teams. All of the cyber security jobs are part of these categories.
Curiosity Leads to Learning
Now, let’s focus on the important starting point. Regardless of the category, it’s crucial for everyone to understand the basic concepts, including Operating Systems and Networking.
Operating Systems
There are several operating systems available, but the most common ones are Windows, Mac, and Linux-based systems. For mobile devices, Android and iOS are the dominant operating systems.
There are many scenarios when you will require to know how a particular operating system works and what are various security features provided by them, what are the limitations each of them has and how an attacker can abuse them.
As for offensive roles, it would be required to know what are the restrictions of the OS and how to bypass them. For defensive roles, it is important to know the loopholes and how to patch them. As for research roles, it is critical to understand the working of different components and their communication to find the zeroday vulnerabilities.
Resources
While concepts are important, the best way to learn is through hands-on practice. Here are some gamified resources that can help you learn and practice security-oriented operating system concepts:
Networking
Networking is the fundamental block of computers’ communication. It provides the underlying infrastructure through which all digital communication occurs. Understanding networking is crucial for identifying, preventing, and mitigating security threats. Therefore, it is important to understand the protocols, routing, firewall, TCP/IP model and other concepts to better secure the networks.
For offensive roles, this knowledge is used to bypass network security controls and do lateral movement via pivoting. Defensive roles people can harden the network access controls and implement firewall and other rules to restrict the access. However, the researchers can find ways to both harden and exploit the network protocols.
Resources
The following resources can help you understand network concepts, from basic to advanced:
- David Bombal YT Channel
- Network Chunk YT Channel
- Cisco Packet Tracer (Tool to create and simulate networks)
Enhancing Skillset
In cybersecurity, it is important to keep improving the skill-set. There are multiple ways to do so but the effective and fun way is playing the CTFs.
CTF (Capture The Flag)
Capture the Flag (CTF) in computer security is an exercise in which participants attempt to find text strings, called FLAG. These flags are found by finding bugs in various applications. It is always important to stay up to date with the exploits and keep polishing your skills. One of the most effective ways is to play CTFs for both red and blue teaming. CTFs (Capture The Flag) are gamified experience to test the skill-set of players in various categories including:
- Web Exploitation
- Mobile Exploitation
- Digital Forensics
- Reverse Engineering
- Binary Exploitation and Pwn
- Cryptography
- Log Analysis via SIEM
- Threat Hunting
- Malware Analysis
- OSINT
- Miscellaneous
Resources
While there are many resources available, the best ones for beginners to practice are: HackTheBox, TryHackMe, PicoCTF and many more.
Since most of these CTF competitions are online, there are on-site competitions as well. The online rounds provide a good experience. But in-person competitions give more exposure and networking opportunities. Also, it is just as important to take part in on-site CTF competitions, including:
- Defcon
- BlackHatMEA
- DreamHack
- Dice Gang CTF
Passion and Consistency
Although skill-set is necessary, but the passion is also important. Cybersecurity is more about passion. Because passion sparks curiosity and keeps you motivated to learn and explore. As being passionate, you will want to explore it further. This drive to learn more, sparks curiosity, pushing you to ask questions and practice more. For instance, you are passionate about hacking, you will be curious about how attackers hack websites. This will push you to understand the web concepts and learn the exploits.
Besides passion, consistency is equally important. With threats and technology always changing, staying updated is critical. So, the ongoing learning and practice is critically required. You need to be consistent in your learning to master an area. For example; If you want to learn web security, you need to be consistent in learning and practicing everyday. Therefore, by combining passion with steady effort, you can build the skills and resilience needed to succeed in this exciting field.
Next Steps
This article was about the general cybersecurity concepts. In the upcoming articles, you will be able to understand the different roles. This will help you choose a career path and explore further. Along with that, you will get the free resources for practice. Furthermore, you can participate in competitions to test your skills. Do not fear to lose, instead participate so that you may learn.
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