Difficulties in CyberSecurity and Tips to Help You Success

This article was inspired by one of my friends who asked me ' hey do you know what's like to work as cybersecurity?' and I thought this was an interesting topic so as a programmer I had to do research on it. Read it if you were considering about it as well!

The computer industry has seen a massive boom in the last few decades, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. By this time, we might know that Cybersecurity is one of such niches with a plethora of exciting opportunities to build a successful career. However, only those with the necessary skills set can reap these benefits.

Unfortunately, mastering cybersecurity is not as easy you might think. But just like in many other fields, you do not have to be a genius to figure it out. All you need is passion, perseverance, and continuous learning. This post explores why cybersecurity is challenging. It also explores tips that can help you in the journey:

Why is Cyber Security Difficult?

There are two reasons why becoming proficient in cybersecurity is difficult. They include:

Super wide

Cybersecurity is so broad, consisting of many fields in technology and computing. Each field is made up of components that consist of several concepts, definitions, and tools. To give you an idea of the extent of the robustness of cybersecurity, some of its main fields include networking, system administration, digital security, forensics, and reverse engineering, among many others.

To master networking, you need a solid grasp of IPTables (which lets you set packet filtering rules in Linux); PCAP (which are static snapshots of data in motion); BGP (which governs the routes between autonomous systems on the internet); TCP (which segments data into conversations between devices); and a litany of many other concepts.

The difficulty level is increased by the interconnectedness of many of these fields. For instance, to learn penetration testing, you have to be adept at a series of skill stacks.

No Institutionalized Learning Framework.

Becoming a doctor isn’t easy, but there’s a well-defined framework in place. After spending about 4 to 5 years in college, you have to go to residency for the next 3 to 7 years. Such a clearly defined path does not exist for cybersecurity. To attain mastery, you’ll have to do lots of self-education and exploration.

But before you throw in the towel, we’ll explore tips that can help you on your journey of mastering cybersecurity.

Learning Approaches to Mastering Cyber Security

Before you start your journey, you have to identify the multiple fields under cybersecurity and understand how they are all related on a broad level. Then you can narrow down the learning scope to the few areas you’re interested in. To kick-start your learning process, there are three major approaches. We’ll briefly examine each of them, as well as their pros and cons.

Top-Down Approach

This approach involves learning as many materials that are specifically tailored to a particular topic. It could also mean taking a specific certification on, say, ethical hacking. While you may be able to rack up lots of surface knowledge, the main drawback is that your fundamentals are weak. As a result, applying your knowledge to real-world scenarios can be challenging. Individuals at this level are referred to as ‘Skiddies,’ which means script kiddies. They know how to use tools made by others, but they do not understand the working principles behind those tools.

If you’re considering this approach, the best option is to serve as an apprentice under a professional cybersecurity expert. Such a person will be able to guide on the relevant things you need to learn, saving you time. Moreover, you will have someone to put you through when you face challenges. But let’s face it, getting a mentor can be difficult given the huge investment in time and effort required on their path. That brings us to the second approach.

Bottom-Top Approach

Under this approach, you start by decomposing a selected topic into the most basic principles, definitions, and tools. You then go about in-depth learning of each of these manageable chunks. After you’ve learned these basics, then you figure out how they all link up with one another. As you can guess, this approach takes time, but it helps you build a solid foundation.

Books are invaluable when taking this approach because you can find high-quality content about a subject area when compared to blog posts or tutorial videos. Using flashcards or spaced repetition software like Anki can help reinforce your learning process.

The advantage of this approach is that once you master your first field in cybersecurity, it becomes easy to learn other fields because many concepts show up again time after time.

Project-Based Approach

This approach is a hybrid of the two previous approaches. It involves selecting a specific project to work on, which will force you to learn the concepts you need to know as you proceed. The advantage of this method is that you get to apply the concepts you’ve learned in a real-world scenario, thereby solidifying your experience.

But remember, the projects you work on must be SMART. Instead of a generic ‘, I want to learn to hack’, you can say ‘I want to learn how to crack WEP (Wired equivalent privacy) encryption on my home wireless network by the end of next month’. This project, for instance, will expose you to layer 2 networking, Aircrack, 802.11 protocol, and lots more. Even if it takes you longer than two months to complete, you would have learned a lot during the journey.

Now’s the Right Time To Start!

The Starting Point of Leadership • Living to Lead

If there’s one thing you should pick from this article, you have to change your mindset. You cannot master cybersecurity in 1 or 2 years, just as you cannot become a commercial pilot in that timeframe. But again, it’s not rocket science. It just takes effort, passion, and time. As Matthew Green succinctly puts it, Mastery of any skill is simply a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.

Please spared the word.