The most important attribute today’s cyber professional can have is a sufficient skill-set in cybersecurity. The reason being: More data breaches were reported in 2017 than in any year on record, and that trend shows no sign of letting up.

Sophisticated technical breaches and ransomware attacks are putting the focus within many companies on incident response and a higher level of technical knowledge. And while there is good understanding that the best way to be successful in preventing cyber threats and protecting critical assets is by having a team of high-end cybersecurity professionals equipped with the latest hands-on skills, assembling such a team is proving to be very difficult.

Businesses worldwide are reporting a shortage of security talent, making the need strong for cyber pros with certain hands-on skills. Take a look at what’s hot in cybersecurity and most in demand.

1. Intrusion Detection

IT managers cannot overemphasize the importance of being able to discover potentially harmful activity before it can compromise the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of a company’s information. This is largely a matter of being able to think critically or, rather, being able to think like an attacker. Asking a question such as: “What would my next move be if I were a hacker?” may lead to the piecing together of information to gain a larger picture of what a potential breach could look like.

Professionals with good investigative skills to identify unauthorized behavior around network traffic, and who can find illicit activity on a specific device or threats on physical systems will become an integral part of any company’s cybersecurity workforce.

2. Risk Analysis

Risk analysis can really be considered two important cybersecurity skills in one: That of being able to analyze risk and then gain compliance with other departments within the organization to minimize the risk. Successful analysis comes in having enough understanding of exploits to identify the difference between one that will be ineffective and one that might severely hamper the core operations of the business.

It’s also a matter of knowing how to track identified risks, discover new risks, and keep track of risk throughout a project or process. Developing a risk mitigation plan involves creating a process of actions that will reduce threats to a project and, thus, the business.

3. Incident Response

This takes intrusion detection and risk analysis a step further to be able to make actionable recommendations and quick decisions once suspicious behavior is detected. Most data breaches are successful because of vulnerabilities or flaws in infrastructure that can happen if steps like proper software coding and quality assurance are lacking. Applications may work, but hackers will soon find holes.

Individuals who have forensic skills for identifying and isolating ransomware, state-sponsored attacks, and other potential and actual breaches will be worth their weight in gold with companies looking to adopt progressive cybersecurity strategies. This takes an understanding of detection and response that goes beyond the perimeter of a business’ applications and network to a drill-down of core processes and systems.

4. Data Management and Analytics

The volume of data managed by many businesses today is overwhelming, making it difficult to respond to vulnerabilities and threats when there is so much information to sift through. For this reason, IT and security professionals who have fundamental predictive and data analytics skills are well-suited for cybersecurity data management roles. It’s also a reason such expertise is in sharp demand.

5. Communication

Risk and compliance IT professionals, security executives, and managers alike need good communication skills. Such skills are increasingly necessary for IT and cybersecurity pros who must interact with non-technical colleagues, customers, and executives in the event of a data breach or other security threat.

Do You Have These In-Demand Hands-On Skills?

Cybint Solutions will help you get there. Cybint provides an accelerated program of simulated labs which allow users without a sufficient hands-on skills set in Cyber Security to acquire the know-how and experience needed to work in the mounting field of cybersecurity.

The best cyber defense is good cyber resilience. Learn more about Cyber Training.