The cybersecurity industry is teeming with job opportunities. In March 2021, there were around 464,000 job openings in this IT field in the United States. That’s nearly half a million available positions! Being promoted to a cybersecurity engineer is one of the top career goals for many people in the cybersecurity field. These types of engineers are in charge of installing, maintaining, and updating various security measures that run on servers in an organization and creating protection plans for these enterprises.
What skills do you need, and what should you focus on if you want to be promoted? Ready to start? Contact CIBR Warriors for the fastest way to a better position in IT!
Here is a list of the top seven technical skills you need to master to be promoted to cybersecurity engineer.
Information Security
It stands to reason that you need to master the art of information security or protecting the electronic data that an organization gathers and stores.
Information security includes protecting all information assets, which means understanding how to use firewalls to block outside intruders from accessing any sensitive data in your network. It also involves knowing how to detect unauthorized access attempts by hacking or brute force attacks.
The bottom line is that if you want to be promoted in your cybersecurity career, information security should be your top priority. You need to learn how to assess the risks and common security vulnerabilities of a system as well as develop policies for protecting it. It’s also about knowing what the best procedures and strategies for responding to security incidents are.
There are many courses you can take that will teach you the skills needed to secure information, but it’s also important to gain experience in this area by working in a company or in an educational environment where IT security is essential.
Network Security
Similar to information security, network security involves protecting all the data that is transmitted over a network. It includes understanding how to encrypt electronic transmissions (HTTPS), control access and configure firewalls, routers, switches, as well as implement security measures such as antivirus protection software for networks.
Network engineers need to be aware of security breaches like denial-of-service attacks or hijacking and know how to mitigate them. They’re responsible for installing security solutions on all network devices, including routers, firewalls, switches, or even printers, for protecting the company’s data from theft by outside parties and internal threats such as unscrupulous employees.
In an advanced role such as a cybersecurity engineer, information and network security are the core cybersecurity skills to master.
Linux
Linux is a crucial operating system in cybersecurity for many reasons.
It’s open-source and free to use. Linux enables a system administrator to have complete control over the operating system, which means they can protect it from outside intruders.
It is a more stable and secure platform than Windows or MacOS. What’s more, for specific processes such as domain name resolution (DNS) and web serving, Linux has proven itself as superior in performance when compared with other operating systems.
It’s for these reasons that you need to know how to use Linux for professional development!
Mastering it doesn’t require an intense learning curve, but many resources (books, tutorials) are available on the subject if you want some help to build on your knowledge foundation.
Information Systems
Information systems represent the hardware and software that an entire organization uses to collect, manage, store and distribute data. What does it mean? It’s about learning the basics of how a computer system works in order to use them efficiently for various tasks.
Understanding information systems is crucial because what you do with technology will have direct implications on your work as a cybersecurity professional. Knowing how information systems function will help you understand the risks associated with a system and what kind of threats it may face.
You should know how to use different operating systems such as Windows or MacOS to connect remote users without using cords. You need to identify common malware and know what to do in case a system is infected.
What’s more, you need a good understanding of networking protocols such as TCP/IP. They can be used on different devices like computer networks or mobile phones, which are also common targets of cyberattacks.
Python
Python is a flexible and dynamic programming language for a wide variety of applications. It’s about knowing how to write simple programs or scripts to automate tasks and develop other more complex systems.
If you are going for a promotion in cybersecurity as an engineer, you must know how to identify and write algorithms using Python. You need to solve problems by writing code and testing its effectiveness with simulations before deploying them on real systems. Python is the most common programming language used by cybersecurity experts. Mastering this skill will be highly beneficial in your software security career.
Python can also be applied to a wide range of tasks, such as malware analysis or penetration testing on computer networks and mobile phone systems.
Cryptography
Related to the fascinating world of cryptocurrency, cryptography is about converting information into an unreadable format to encrypt and decrypt it.
A cybersecurity engineer needs to know how encryption works, which is crucial for protecting data from hackers or unauthorized access when storing sensitive company files on cloud storage systems.
You should be able to identify different algorithms, such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), one of the most common algorithms used to encrypt data. Cryptography can also be applied in other contexts, such as streaming audio or video content over a network without it being intercepted and modified by intruders.
You should not only know how encryption works but also about different encryption methods such as symmetric or asymmetric encryption. You need to know how algorithms work in order to identify weaknesses and design better security for data protection.
Project Management
For many people, project management is an important skill to learn to have better career prospects. It’s about managing the different steps that are required for completing and delivering projects on time.
Becoming proficient in this area will help you better manage your workload and be more efficient with your work by organizing tasks and responsibilities. Moreover, you will be able to lead and motivate others towards a common goal.
Project management is vital for a career in cybersecurity because it allows cybersecurity specialists to identify risks associated with their projects and how they can reduce these risks by adopting the project accordingly.
Project management is essential for detecting problems early to take corrective actions before they snowball into major issues.
Don’t Forget the Soft Skills!
All of the skills described above are so-called hard skills or technical security skills you should hone. However, you must not neglect the importance of soft skills.
Soft skills are personal qualities and behaviors that can be used in the workplace. They include things like communication, creativity, leadership, negotiation, or problem-solving. They make you stand out from other candidates who have the same hard skills.
A cybersecurity engineer is in charge of the security and integrity of an organization’s data, applications, and systems. They need to understand what these things are and how to assess their risks before deploying solutions for them. They also need to communicate with other departments like marketing or sales if there are any security-related issues.
This is why soft skills are so necessary, and they should be developed alongside hard ones to maximize your chances of promotion or a new job opportunity in cybersecurity.
Conclusion
Becoming a cybersecurity engineer takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s well worth the investment. The top seven hard skills you need to master are information security, network security, Linux, information systems, Python, cryptography, and project management.
Communication is crucial for communicating instructions between departments and developing and maintaining relationships with other employees. Leaders need to motivate their team members for the project management process to work effectively, so soft skills are vital for this task as well.
Soft skills should not be neglected because they can make you stand out from others who might have similar skill sets.
If you feel overwhelmed with looking for the right job opportunity for yourself, why not contact CIBR Warriors? We specialize in finding the right fit between cybersecurity professionals and companies looking for fresh talent. Message us for more information!
