Nickolas
I am a Junior in High School and I was wondering what I can do now to prepare for a job in Cyber Security
I am asking because I told my uncle who is constantly telling me to be smart about what I choose to do and I am not genius when it comes to my education I am smart in some areas but in stuff like Science and Math I show my weakness. And I am asking to see how other people in my similar situation better there weakness.
I know Cyber Security has alot to do with Math atleast that is what I have been told,
Thank you for your time and suggestions. #computer-security #cyber-security #computer-programming #highschool
5 answers
Veronique Phelan
Veronique’s Answer
You might look at taking classes with Code Wizards. They have programming classes for middle school students.
Kenneth Smith
Kenneth’s Answer
What I find more relevant is that programming requires a good grasp on logic. Being able to navigate logic conditions, knowing what conditions need to be true to run certain code and how not to mess up that condition. Similarly you need to know the logic of what math function you need to make for your calculation. Once you know though, you just call the function from your math library and never have to worry about solving it. Unless, of course, you want to make your own math library--that might get more complicated, but that's usually not something you have to worry about.
I hope that helps inform your decisions,
Kenneth
This was very helpful,I was worried about the math part of it,I love computers but when math comes into play,well that love becomes a complicated relationship lol.
So formulas is really all I need to know? and thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question.
Nickolas
Chirag R. Shah
Chirag R.’s Answer
Cybersecurity is a broad category and there are many different aspects you can learn about. I would suggest to understand different technologies and then dig deeper depending on what further interests you. Example 1- Understand the basic protocols like HTTPS, SSL protocols, further dig into how digital certificates work, how encryption/decryption works and so on. Example 2- you could start down a different track, say how does a user get authenticated on a website, what products and technologies are involved in getting that done, how does multifactor technology work..Example 3- How are corporations protected by Cyber Attacks -- Think Firewalls, Other security Appliances which protect from untrusted machines, users, devices to connect into an enterprise. Hope you get the point- You pick on use case, try follow that down and understand the various security aspects involved and then dig deeper.
Chirag R. recommends the following next steps:
Andrew Strain
Andrew’s Answer
Learn about how hard drives and file systems work-especially the del command on Windows and the rm command on UNIX servers.
Learn about network security including plain text passwords, password storage on web browsers, and how brute force password cracking algorithms work. Learn about Ethernet Packet Sniffers. Learn about port forwarding-especially why and certain ports are insecure to forward. Learn about intranets.
Learn about security protocols like MD5, RSA, etc. And also logins like Telnet and FTP (both not secure) vs ssh and scp (secure). Learn how VPNs like OpenVPN work.
Learn about public key and private key. Learn why certificates, like those for SSL, work and need to be trusted.
Learn about how to use Access Control Lists (ACLs) on both Windows and UNIX.
Learn how databases, like Oracle work. Mainly just password encryption and decryption; and also SQL injection and how to prevent it.
Free UNIXs to use are Linux and FreeBSD. OpenVPN is free. The OpenVPN servers run on both Windows and UNIX. The clients run on Windows, UNIX, and smartphones. There are free Ethernet Packet Sniffers for Linux and FreeBSD-I’m not sure about Windows. If you join the Oracle developers network, which is free, you can download a free version of Oracle database.
If you’re running Windows, VirtualBox, which is free, allows you to create virtual machines and install OSs like Linux and FreeBSD on them.
I know that this sounds like a lot (and it may not be a complete list-I know I left out the programming, which was already answered) but if you know the basics, you’ll understand why and how the expensive security programs work and do things which other cyber security can’t.
Chris Hayes
Chris’s Answer
Alright so if you'd really like to learn about 'cyber security' you should learn about how things are 'hacked' or 'exploited'. All applications and even most hardware have these things called exploits, these are the things that are used to identify 'weak' applications or development processes. If you'd like to learn about how to exploit these vulnerabilities then you should learn as much as you can about how they're done. Start by understanding and learning to use things like the metasploit framework (https://www.metasploit.com) and general application security.
If you'd like a job in cyber security you'll have to take some certification classes called 'white hat' certifications. This signals to companies that you're somewhat trustworthy and hireable. Many companies run 'hack·a·thons' but these are little more than attempts to cheaply pay intelligent people to find vulnerabilities in their software. If you want to make money in this area you can identify companies that pay out for 'bugs' and find bugs in their software, submit them to the company and hope for a good payment.
If you do a simple google search though you'll find that there are a lot of private companies that will pay you very good money for what's called 'zero-day' exploits. Just google it and find out more if you're even slightly interested.