Cybersecurity is very broad and somewhat poorly defined.
Why is cybersecurity appealing to you? What is your current level of expertise/background/education? What do you mean when you say "cybersecurity career?"
Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#12Okay, so - long story short, you need both. I know collectively we're understaffed in security in general, but I am also sick of this "everyone from every walk of life wants to be and can be security" mindset, seen too many people come in who don't know the first thing. I don't mind helping out my juniors, but if you come at me with questions and obviously no prior knowledge or even attempt to research on your own, I…
I understand your frustration, and rest assured that I'm not looking into it with 0 prior knowledge. Mostly, I was more worried about wasting money on certifications. As to where I want to be, I am not entirely sure, ideally I would love to be both red and blue teaming.
That certification roadmap is excellent, thank you for this gem and thank you for your input.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#13There’s lots of worthwhile advice here to pick from.
For suggestions of practical activities to help build your skills and knowledge, or to frame it in a wider cyber context, you may find Cyber Springboard [1] useful. I’ve set it up to help others looking to get into cyber roles.
I’ve used the Cyber Security Body of Knowledge CyBOK [2] to help organise the activities.
There’s lots still to do in building pathways, mapping to job roles etc.
Feedback and suggestions are appreciated.
Edit: it may also be worth looking at the different specialisms and seeing what interests you most. The UK Cyber Security Council have a careers route map [3] which may be useful to you.
[1] https://cyberspringboard.com/
[3] https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/qualifications-and...
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#14You are still getting mixed advice here from learn to code to get OSCP. There are two pathd, in the US that is: get an IT job, certs and then entry level security or get a degree and then entry level security. The ideal entry level security job is a SOC analyst where you learn incident handling and a breadth of security knowledge and hopefully get your company to sponsor SANS training or GIAC certs (only because they…
Thank you, I have been looking into SOC analyst as it does sound interesting. It's some solid advice
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#15Okay, so - long story short, you need both. I know collectively we're understaffed in security in general, but I am also sick of this "everyone from every walk of life wants to be and can be security" mindset, seen too many people come in who don't know the first thing. I don't mind helping out my juniors, but if you come at me with questions and obviously no prior knowledge or even attempt to research on your own, I…
Listening to every episode of Darknet Diaries doesn't put my resume at the top of the stack???
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#16Off in the weeds Minority Opinion -- All the other advice here is great. I think there are 2 other things that might not normally be covered, and you should know them.
Know and understand what a Data Diode is, and how to properly use one to enable provably secure egress of data without ingress of control in monitoring situations.
Know what capability based security is. Be able to explain the confused deputy problem. If you understand this, you'll never trust Linux, Windows, MacOS or almost any other OS.
that is all
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#17Aside from the guidance offered in the other comments, look at working at a cybersecurity vendor where there are multiple tracks. At a big vendor there are the traditional IT security roles for network, endpoint, cloud, GRC, IAM, etc.
But there are also roles in sales, marketing, operations, product management, and administration. All have entry points that do not require cybersecurity expertise. But you can work your way from an entry role in any direction.
54% of 3,175 cybersecurity vendors are hiring still this year.
If you get lucky you may work for a high flying success and participate in their IPO. At any rate it can be a lot of fun.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Cybersecurity Career in 2022
#18Aside from the guidance offered in the other comments, look at working at a cybersecurity vendor where there are multiple tracks. At a big vendor there are the traditional IT security roles for network, endpoint, cloud, GRC, IAM, etc. But there are also roles in sales, marketing, operations, product management, and administration. All have entry points that do not require cybersecurity expertise. But you can work you…
> 54% of 3,175 cybersecurity vendors are hiring still this year.
Would love to know what you're citing here; quick google didn't find it