Top Skills For Cybersecurity Professionals

Your organization likely operates in an environment where cybersecurity is a key business imperative. A strong cybersecurity team can implement robust controls and policies to protect your firm from cyber attacks and data breaches. Members of this team can also update existing security systems, implement security protocols, and minimize the impact of security incidents.

That said, the ongoing talent shortage in the cybersecurity field means that many organizations end up hiring the wrong people. To avoid such (costly) mistakes, it’s important to hire the professionals with the right skills.

What are some of these “right” cybersecurity skills? Let’s take a look.

What Cybersecurity Roles Are Organizations Hiring For?

In the vast cybersecurity field, cybersecurity experts are hired depending on their skills, technical background, and experiences, and what security tasks they are required to perform.

For example, a company looking to build a secure information security system and defend its IT architecture from unauthorized access might hire a cybersecurity engineer. Another firm might hire a security analyst as part of its security operations center (SOC) to monitor, detect, and remediate security threats, triage incidents, and perform risk assessments.

Other in-demand cybersecurity positions include:

• Network security architect
• Security software developer
• Penetration tester
• Certified ethical hacker
• Application security engineer
• Malware analyst
• Digital forensics analyst
• Vulnerability assessment specialist
• Risk analysis specialist

Roles like incident response coordinator, security event management specialist, and cybersecurity project manager are also in demand.

Effective teams are led by experienced security leaders like Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) who develop and implement security policies and procedures to protect systems and data, and strengthen the firm’s security posture.

Many teams also hire security awareness trainers to educate employees about cybersecurity risks and ensure that they follow best practices to protect IT assets and business-critical data.

Top 7 Technical Skills Needed for Cybersecurity Professionals

Cybersecurity experts with these technical security skills are in high demand:

Networking and System Administration

Professionals with network and system administration skills can build and maintain effective and secure network infrastructures. They understand networking and computer systems, which enables them to protect these assets from unauthorized access or malicious compromise.

A security practitioner must also have strong expertise in operating systems and virtual machines. They must also know how to protect operating systems with antivirus software, updates, and firewalls.

Network Security Control

Network security control skills empower cybersecurity professionals to enhance network infrastructure security. They can implement security controls like firewalls to detect and prevent unauthorized network access, and mitigate potential security risks.

Risk Assessment and Analysis

Effective cybersecurity requires ongoing cyber risk assessments and competent risk assessment specialists. These professionals are experts at analyzing the probability and potential impact of adverse events and suggesting strategies to avoid or mitigate their impact. They also have in-depth compliance knowledge.

Cloud Security

As more and more organizations move to the cloud, the demand for cloud security experts is increasing. These professionals understand the underlying infrastructure of public clouds like AWS and Microsoft Azure. They can build secure systems in the cloud and implement strategies, technologies, and identity and access management systems to effectively protect the cloud infrastructure, workloads, and data.

Programming languages

Many common programming languages like Java, C/C++, assembly language, PHP, and Python are used to design security solutions for protecting enterprise networks against intruders. There is a huge demand for cybersecurity pros who can create effective security programs in these languages.

Security Incident Handling and Response

IR teams play a critical role in minimizing the impact of security events. Professionals with strong IR skills can identify, respond to, and investigate security incidents, and help to restore affected systems quickly.

Malware detection and prevention

Malware infections are an increasingly-common problem for organizations everywhere. Cybersecurity teams can minimize such infections if they have professionals who know how to detect malware and ransomware, prevent unauthorized access to enterprise systems, and mitigate their security risks.

Important Soft Skills Needed for Cybersecurity Professionals

Successful cybersecurity practitioners possess numerous soft skills in addition to the technical skills highlighted above. Strong analytical skills and critical thinking skills are a must, along with time management and communications skills.

Personality attributes like creativity, attention to detail, and adaptability are also desirable. Ideally, these practitioners should have a desire to learn and stay updated on new cyberthreats and security technologies.

Working in cybersecurity demands an ability to switch gears quickly and to discover workable solutions to new problems. That’s why they must be able to think fast on their feet and possess excellent problem-solving skills.

Reliable and effective enterprise cybersecurity is a team effort, so effective cybersecurity professionals are great team players. Furthermore, they are less interested in pursuing individual glory and focus more on keeping the organization safe from threat actors.

What Makes a Good Cybersecurity Professional?

The most valuable cybersecurity professionals bring a majority of the technical security skills and soft skills highlighted above. They have technical knowledge about cybersecurity and understand the various tools used by cyber criminals.

Skilled professionals can design effective cyberdefenses and apply them to the organization’s unique security landscape. Equally important, they understand the business value of these cyberdefenses and how they can strengthen the firm’s financial stability, reputation, compliance posture, and competitiveness.

In addition to the top cybersecurity skills, many organizations look for security professionals with certifications like:

• (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• CompTIA Security+
• CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+)
• (ISC)2 Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
• ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
• EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
• CompTIA PenTest+
• Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)

Are you looking for a security expert with the above or other accreditations and certifications? TalPoint can connect you with all the experts you need for your team or project. Click here to get started.

TalPoint Can Help You Source Top Cybersecurity Talent

Are you hiring for breadth of talent or depth of talent? If you select one over another, you risk leaving security gaps in your IT infrastructure. With the TalPoint expert marketplace, you don’t have to choose.

TalPoint connects security, privacy, risk and compliance experts to the businesses that need their expertise. We match companies with vetted experts to deliver outcomes across a wide range of project types and we empower our consultants (“TalPoint Experts”) to thrive in the new digital economy.

Our cybersecurity matching process can connect you with a wide range of cybersecurity experts to get the breadth you need. At the same time, these security professionals are specialists in specific areas, so you also get depth of expertise.

Schedule a time to chat to know how TalPoint can help you achieve your desired cybersecurity hiring outcomes.