Cybersecurity? It’s Easy, If You Do It Smartly

In today’s world of continuous online and digital presence, the concept of “cybersecurity” is a popular issue. The need for high-quality, reasonably-priced, and practical education has never been more pressing as the cyber industry continues to grow and more jobs become available, as demand for certain skills increases, and as compliance frameworks become more and more critical.

The cybersecurity domain is a vast field. Lots of different roles and responsibilities fall under this domain. The first thing I could advise is choosing a focus before you attempt to learn cybersecurity. If I don’t know anything about cybersecurity, how can I choose it? This could sound counter productive. You can choose a focus by concentrating on either your present skill set or your areas of interest.

In this blog, we will see what easy ways there are to start a career in cybersecurity. What different types of job profiles are available that you can pick according to your area of interest, and what topics do you need to learn?

First you need to choose the area of interest in cyber security, below we have mentioned the different paths of cybersecurity:

The above-mentioned paths of cybersecurity are the initial paths to get started, and for beginners, they have to choose any one of them. When someone starts down one of the paths, after gainning experience, they have to learn more things and need to keep updated.

For an example, if someone has interest in penetration testing, they have to choose between web application security and android application security. Once they mastered any one topic, they can easily transition to another.

After choosing any one path in cybersecurity, there are a few topics that are common to every field of cybersecurity. Let’s figure out what the topics are that are common to every field of cybersecurity.

These are topics that are very essential to learn before getting into the cybersecurity domain. Once you’ve mastered these topics, you’ve completed half of your work. You can now choose which domain of cybersecurity you are interested in after successfully completing all of the topics.

Without knowing the basic fundamentals of information technology, it’s very hard to find your best field of interest. Once you have selected a field in the cybersecurity domain, then it’s up to you whether you want to take a certification course or go for self-study (a Long process).

We will discuss both paths here; just stick with us.

Certification Path

Let’s start with some certification courses that are appropriate for a beginner level candidate if you decide to take them. I’ve listed the best cybersecurity certifications for beginners below:

Let’s see most popular beginner level certification in little bit details.

CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker, provided by ec-council)

CEH certification is popular all over the world, and it’s most popular certification because of the simplicity of this course. There is no prerequisites for taking this certification exam or enrolling in this course. Anyone, whether a high school graduate, a diploma holder, or a graduate, can enrol in this course and become certified.

In India, most of the companies are looking for CEH-certified candidates who have better skills and knowledge. CEH certification consists of both a theoretical and practical exam. It totally depends on the candidates whether they want to take the theoretical exam or practical exam.

CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate)

Cisco’s most valuable certification, and most of the candidates choose this certification. This certification covers the fundamental concept of networking, IP connectivity, security fundamentals, automation and programming. Because this is an entry-level certification, there are no prerequisites for enrolling in this course.

After clearing the certification, candidates can join as network engineers, network security analysts, system engineers, network analysts, and many more.

CHFI (Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator)

CHFI is a forensic investigator course, and this course provide the details of data acquisition and duplication, Windows forensics, Linux and Mac forensics, IoT forensics, malware forensics, network forensics, and many more.

It is possible to successfully conduct a computer forensic investigation that results in the prosecution of offenders by taking CHFI, a thorough course that covers major forensic investigation scenarios and gives students hands-on experience with various forensic investigation techniques.

Once the candidates clear the certification, they can join as IT security specialists, security engineers, security forensic investigators, and many more.

Self-Study Path

Now let’s talk about the self-study path. If someone cannot afford the certification fees or for any other reason, what steps must they take to develop the skills and knowledge required to enter the cybersecurity domain without difficulty?

Choose any one field in the cybersecurity domain and try to figure out what are the syllabus and topics are that you need to learn in order to master that specific field. There are plenty of online portals where fundamental and advanced levels of knowledge are provided to you.

For instance, if you choose web application penetration testing, then lots of online portals are available to gain knowledge, such as Portswigger academy, Hack the Box Academy, Mozilla mdn web docs, and many more. These free resources does not provide any certification but they can help build the skills and knowledge that you require.

A major problem in self-study is clearing doubts. Once you have started learning, there is a good chance that you will have many doubts, so the easiest way to clear those doubts is to join online community groups like discord groups, wilders security forums, cybersecurity insiders, and so on.

Conclusion

We’ve mostly seen different paths of cybersecurity as a newcomer in this blog; also check out the certification path and the self-study path. It is possible to achieve the best results if you choose one dedicated path and organise your study wisely.

Once you have choose the area of interest, it is easy to develop the required skills. The only things required is dedication, which is easy to achieve with self-discipline. It is entirely up to you whether to pursue certification or self-study. To master all of those skills, both paths necessitate a lot of hard work and practice.

Keep learning and keep exploring!