Cybersecurity Certifications: Prerequisites and Factors in Play

The cybersecurity community has seen a significant rise in the number of job opportunities, courtesy of the rapid increase in cybercrimes over the years. This creates new room for individuals looking to break bread while exposing vulnerabilities for organizations.

However, before getting into the best online cyber security certificate programs to polish your cybersecurity skills, let us better understand the factors that are in play around them.

Cybersecurity Certification: The Prerequisites

Cybersecurity certifications have become fairly important but can differ in terms of what is required to achieve the same. Before enrolling in a certificate program, the main objective should be to see whether it helps you with your career, along with plenty of other factors that you need to consider.

Cost

Ask of whether the study material is included and how much would it cost to take or complete the course in question.

Eligibility

Is it necessary for you to have a bachelor's degree in a technical field to keep your dream alive? Do you need prior work experience? Is there a need to complete some preliminary courses or assessments?

Time

It is fairly important to learn about the average course/study time. How soon can you get the certification upon completion? Be certain to check for certifications that are valid only after you have had ample years of work experience.

Top Professional Cybersecurity Certifications

Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

This designation is offered by ISACA and is of significance for technology professionals that are on the lookout to transition to management roles in their careers.

Some of the key skills for the same include the likes of governance, risk management, program development/management, incident management, and the existing expertise to develop skills for IT security and management.

One needs more than just passing the exam for this as security managers need to have ample years of full-time work experience in the practice areas while having to pay an application and examination fee.

The search for finding one of the best online cyber security certificate programs ends here for every young aspirant.

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

This is the well-known industry standard for individuals who are looking to pursue a career as an ethical hacker/penetration tester. The course focuses on preparing IT professionals for enterprise-level security responsibilities which can include testing and finding weak spots in the system.

Key skills for this certification include code/SQL injection, denial-of-service attacks, cryptography, hijacking applications, and web servers, and a great understanding of worms, Trojans, and viruses.

The exam costs about $950, for which multiple vendors offer courses for the test that is based on a self-study model. For eligibility, individuals either have to pass a course that gets offered by the sponsor or have two years of work experience in the relevant security field.

Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA)

The course is specifically designed for professionals that are looking to control, audit, and monitor the information technology systems of a particular enterprise. Information system audits is a rapidly growing field and it even pays a hefty sum, with CISA statistics showing the average sum to be around 110,000 dollars.

Individuals have to have relevant work experience including the core practices and pay a fee for the same. Individuals who are already working in the audit or risk management ecosystem can use this certification as the perfect stepping stone for their careers.

CompTIA Security+

Skills like incident response, countering threats, attacks, vulnerabilities, risk, compliance, governance, and environmental design and architecture are mandatory for this certification. It has a global exam that determines the baseline skills of the individual for key information security areas.

Different study programs are available and the exam costs about $370. Since the course is globally accepted, plenty of professionals find this opportunity as a great way to showcase what they are capable of in the information security market.

Significance of Teaching Cybersecurity in Schools

Nothing is Unknown

Often teenagers have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to access their computers or mobile devices. The ground reality is that everyone has a target on their backs. Cybercriminals attack with the objective of making it as magnanimous as possible.

Every bit of information and stolen password is worth something to the attackers. This chain can further be used to initiate bigger targets. The owner of the device may not even realize until their email is blacklisted by mail filters or when the account gets suspended for suspicious activities.

Cybersecurity is for Everyone

Most people have the common belief that the services they are using are to be held accountable for security, which is partially true. It is true that providers are responsible for ensuring that their services are as secure as they can be, but users still have to protect their accounts and devices by themselves as well.

Mail filters can be handy but they are not cent percent accurate, justifying the need for human touch. For the same purpose, they might require lengthy passwords and even restrict dictionary words, but certainly cannot stop anyone from entering a password if it's just lying around.

Learning about cybersecurity at an early age. Unless better technology replaces the internet, these cybersecurity habits can payoff in the long run for the younger generation.

Use of Internet Calls for Great Safety Habits

Nobody knows how to stay safe on the internet from the get-go. This is why schools have to play a major role in teaching students about great cybersecurity habits, with emphasis on the word habit. Awareness regarding cybersecurity isn't enough if it only includes practical knowledge.

Students need to develop the right mindset to be quick enough to tackle dangerous situations in the scenarios. Similar to what they learn about being on the street, these habits should also come into play every time you access the internet.

While teaching about a computer, schools should also target the security part of the curriculum as well since it is way harder to teach kids about internet security when compared to opening a web browser or composing an email. Learning cybersecurity has more to it than it seems.

Trust and Fall

A major part of cybersecurity is deciding when to trust your gut and when not to. Most teenagers don't shy away from giving out information in the first place. Keeping secrets about things comes off as a game for them instead of something serious.

Anything that comes from a friend or sounds authoritative becomes trustworthy to teenagers of this generation. But the problem is that whatever happens online goes absolutely against this logic. Kids don't generally understand how browsing through a website can harm them. This is because factors like the tone of voice, face, and body language are absent on the internet.

The idea of getting harmed from far away via phones and computers might sound pretty strange.

Conclusion

Finding the best online cyber security certificate programs can be a hard ask, especially when you don't know what suits your needs the best. This is why it is important to learn about the eligibility factors and other things to ensure that you steer down the right path.