Getting Started in a Cybersecurity Career

The Cybersecurity field can be a tricky and scary one. For years, I have heard folks concerned about the amount of technical information and jargon they’d have to learn before stepping forward towards a career in cybersecurity. There was always a reason not to pursue a career in cybersecurity, which all stems from a personal fear. As a lover of mythbusters, I have a few myths I would like to bust about transitioning or starting a career in cybersecurity.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• “I don’t want to be a hacker.”
• “You need a Degree / Certification for Cybersecurity.”
• “I’m bad at computers.”
• “I don’t know how to code.”
• “I’m not technical enough.”
• “I don’t have experience.”

I am here to tell you – as a college educated professional – my favorite people to work with are self-learners and those that took the initiative to figure out how to (A). Sell themselves as a salesperson, (B). Learn what they need to be successful, and (C) prioritize their self-growth.?

While yes, degrees, experience, and certifications grant you credibility and provide competition edges in any job market. A self-taught and disciplined individual with a digital portfolio is all you need to land your first job in cyber security.?

So how would one get started? When choosing my next career path, I typically perform the following steps:

1. Determine which cyber career path you’d choose.
2. Research job postings from that path.?
3. Highlight any skills you DO NOT possess and create a study plan.
4. Find an open source or private project to work on for the technical know-hows.
5. Execute and document.

In case you missed it, check out the two-part articles on digital portfolio, Part 1 Why You Need Digital Portfolio and Part 2: Digital Portfolio Strategy to guide you through your new journey.

Awesome, so that busts the degree, certification, and experience myths. Now to the point of today’s lesson, the career paths in cybersecurity. You DO NOT need to know how to code, be a hacker, or even better “technical.” There are different areas in the cybersecurity umbrella that can easily be a fit for anyone. The Cybersecurity Umbrella can get tricky if you mention by color, such as red, blue, purple, or by type, AppSec, OffSec, InfoSec. I’ll go into these a little further below.?

Unsure which path to take or would like to gain experience? Check out the Latinas In Cyber (LAIC) Volunteer page to see how you can give back and grow the cybersecurity skills with the Cyber Big Sister. If you’re interested in guidance of a mentoring cohort and want to sign up as a mentor - sign up via our event registration and subscribe to www.latinasincyber.com to hear the latest news on the upcoming cohort mentoring program.?

For exclusive one-on-one career coaching, check out Career Coaching under Shop in www.cyberjiujiteira.com.

The Industries

The fortunate part of choosing a cybersecurity career is that security is required in ALL industries. Whether it’s physical or digital security, medium or small business, every type of industry requires cybersecurity to protect themselves from ransomware, phishing, unauthorized access, or outages.?

According to purplesec.us, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cybersecurity crimes have risen 600%. The National Small business association reports that 60% of small businesses that experience a cyber attack, go out of business within 6 months without a proper security organization. In a latest Forbes article, it was estimated that in Q1 of 2022, 3.5 million GLOBAL cybersecurity positions remained unfilled and opened due to lack of talent and most individuals with less than 4 years of experience.

In the 2020 COVID pandemic and the aftermath going into 2022, there has been a high demand for cybersecurity professionals and increase of job postings, especially after a major breach, such as Uber, Target, and Yahoo.

Below is a list of several industries that require cybersecurity:

• Health
• Industrial
• Hospitality
• Software
• Technology
• eCommerce
• Crypto
• Automotive
• Government
• Blockchain

The Teams

There is a lot of debate on the colors and teams in cybersecurity, however, I’ve broken it down into:

• Red Team
• White Team
• Blue Team
• Purple Team
• Green Team

Each team has specific roles and responsibilities in order to ensure the CIA Triad (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) of a company’s most valuable assets. See the image below for a quick overview of some of the responsibilities.

The Secs

Another categorized method for understanding the cyber security umbrella is what I personally like to call “The Secs.” Each team falls under an “Sec,” such as AppSec, OffSec, InfoSec and has a goal and responsibility to protect the company.?

See Figure 2 for a quick overview of the various types of “The Sec.” To keep the graphic visual, there are some other notable methods, such as Cloud Security, IoT Security, Embedded Systems Security, or Operations Security. Each company or organization has their own requirements for a specific “The Sec” within their organization. Be mindful of this when searching for your next opportunity in “The Sec” realms.

To help guide your journey further, for each “The Sec”, I’ve included a few job titles to research and understand for that space.

1. Application Security (AppSec)
2. Software Security Engineer
3. Security Engineer
4. Cloud Security Engineer
5. Security Analyst
6. DevSecOps Engineer
7. Risk Management
8. Security Architect
9. Information Security (InfoSec)
10. Threat Intelligence analyst
11. Security Operations analyst / engineer
12. Detection Engineer
13. Forensics analyst?
14. Offensive Security (OffSec)
15. Pentester
16. Ethical hacker
17. Business security (BusSec)
18. Program manager
19. Customer Success managers
20. Scrum master
21. Agile professionals
22. Business analyst
23. Financial analyst

This list does not include everything, more a starting point for those searching for their next paths.

La Comunidad

One of the biggest impacts to my career was the community and support I had throughout my career. This is not a one-latina success story, but a collection of comunidad, familia, y amigos that held my hand through the bumps. Depending on your location, career path, and financial situation, find a community you can be a part of and grow. Attend local meetups, seminars, and networking events. There are several websites or social media platforms where you can find these events. Make sure to register and mark them on your calendar!

Volunteer your time to an organization and help them on their mission. This helps meet folks, learn new skills, help the next people up, and a great resume builder and interview talking points.

Below is a list of community groups we recommend:

• The WIT Network
• Cybrary.it
• RaicesCyber
• LatinasInTech
• WiCyS - Women in Cybersecurity
• WOMCY
• WomSA

Resources

Myth busted!?

You don’t need to be a hacker, know how to code, nor have a degree or certification to land your first job! There are several positions available in the cybersecurity field due to the influx of cyber-attacks and the talent gap. Use this time to find the path you’d like to take, start an open source or private project to learn any of the skill sets you are less confident about, and use this project for your digital portfolio to help guide those interview conversations.?

1. Determine which cyber career path you’d choose.
2. Research job postings from that path.?
3. Highlight any skills you DO not possess and create a study plan.
4. Find an open source or private project to work on for the technical know-hows.
5. Execute and document.

Again, be sure to check out our two-part series on building a digital portfolio, Part 1 Why You Need Digital Portfolio and Part 2: Digital Portfolio Strategy to guide you through your new journey.

Further, if you want to get involved, gain more experience to grow your cybersecurity skills, or to volunteer - follow Latinas In Cyber (LAIC), sign up to volunteer with us.

We are launching a Mentorship circle January 2023, be sure to follow us to find out more details about mentoring cohort and subscribe to us at www.latinasincyber.com.

For exclusive one-on-one career coaching, check out Career Coaching under Shop in www.cyberjiujiteira.com.

Below is a list of additional resources provided by the Cyber Big Sisters:

• Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Security Engineer Professional Certificate | Coursera
• Cybrary.it
• CyberLife School
• The Five Functions | NIST
• The Role of Different Types of Teams in Cyber Security
• Understanding- Cyber Security Teams and Roles | by goswamiijaya | SecureBit | Medium