Cybersecurity - The Technical Skills

According to Wikipedia, cybersecurity or information technology security is the protection of computer systems and networks from the theft of or damage to their hardware, software, or electronic data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.

To be a cybersecurity professional, one has to be an expert in many different fields. We generally need clarification about the technical skills required for the job. It is essential for an ethical hacker to acquire the knowledge and skills to become an expert hacker and to use this knowledge lawfully. Here are eight technical skills one has to know.

Intrusion Detection

Reactive security - identify and mitigate malicious activity. It could be network-based or host-based. Examples: Snort, OSSEC, Suricata, Bro, etc.

Reverse Engineering

 Needed for malware analysis and vulnerability research. Example: IDA Pro (Disassembler), WinHex (Hexeditor), OllyDbg (Debugger).

Programming

Useful for scripting, tools development, security research, and reverse engineering. Example: Python, C/C++, Java, Assembly. 

Virtualization

Common across IT organizations - for research, lab development, and reverse engineering. Example: VMware, VirtualBox.

Cryptography

Understand and develop algorithms, cyphers, and security systems. Examples: Encryption, digital signatures, hash functions, etc.

Networking

Understand networking protocols, packet sniffing, firewalls, routers, etc. Example: TCP/IP, ICMP, Wireshark.

Operating Systems

In-depth knowledge of major operating environments, such as Windows, Linx, and Macintosh. Knowledge like System architecture, application execution, logging details, configurations, and settings.

Data Modeling

Useful for threat modelling incident investigation. Example: Maltego and Synapse.

We hope this helps. If any suggestions or doubts you can add a comment and we will reply as soon as possible.