Breaking Myths in Cybersecurity: More Than Just "Hacking"
Abhijith Soman
SOC Analyst | Cybersecurity Enthusiast | Skilled in SIEM, EDR, XDR, SOAR, Threat Hunting, and Incident Response | Driving Security Operations with Threat Detection, Mitigation, and Automation
Recently, I had the chance to speak at a seminar on cybersecurity, and it was an eye-opening experience-not just for the students, but for me as well.
The moment I stepped in, I could sense the excitement in the room. For many students, cybersecurity still means one thing: hacking and cracking. Their questions revolved around “How do I hack a system?†or “How can I become a pentester?†While the enthusiasm is great, the reality is that cybersecurity is much more than just breaking into systems.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is the rush to grab high-profile certifications like CEH, OSCP, and other hyped ones-without even mastering the basics. It’s like wanting to build a skyscraper without laying a strong foundation. If you don’t understand networking, system security, threat analysis, or log analysis, no certificate will make you a true cybersecurity professional.
And then, of course, there was that moment-where the trainer, in true "hacker" style, ran the universal command:
git clone https://some-random-tool.git
cd tool && python3 tool.py
And suddenly, everyone was in awe. But cybersecurity isn’t about copying and pasting commands from GitHub. It’s about knowing why something works, how threats operate, and what defensive strategies actually mitigate risks.
I left the session with one key takeaway: we need to shift the focus from hype to fundamentals. Certifications have their place, but without knowledge, they are just expensive PDFs. Instead of chasing big names, let’s build a strong skill set-because in cybersecurity, understanding beats memorization every single time.
Cybersecurity is more than just running tools and chasing certifications. Understanding the fundamentals networking, threat analysis, and system security is what truly builds expertise. Let’s focus on knowledge, not just hype!
Cyber Security Enthusiast | BTech Student | Emerging Talent in Cyber Defense
1 个月That's so true everyone wants to become a hacker or pentester. Many students choose cyber security just for becoming a hacker without even knowing where to start and what to learn.
Aspiring Data Engineer | Multi-Cloud Data Ecosystem Architect | Expertise in Real-Time AI, Secure Pipelines, and Federated Learning | Skilled in Building Secure, Scalable Data Pipelines
1 个月This isn’t just the case with cybersecurity—it applies to every domain. For example, many people reduce data engineering to just building pipelines, but as professionals in the field, we understand its true depth. This deeper understanding is what sets us apart and enables us to perform better than those with a surface-level perspective.