Cyber security is not an entry-level field, which means that there are a few fundamental skills and knowledge you must be familiar with before diving into it. It would help if you had some mastery of technical and non-technical skills to excel in this field. To be a cyber security expert, truth be told, you must be a jack of all trades. It would be best to have a good grasp of networking, system administration, command-line coding, forensics, reverse engineering, cyber operations, audit and compliance and digital security. This article will explain the cyber security books you will need to become a competent cyber security expert.
What do you study in cyber security?
Cyber security learning involves gaining theoretical knowledge from cyber security books to perform practical endeavors like penetration testing. Let us now deep study the things you will need to know before taking cyber security as a career. For beginners, it is an added advantage to familiarize themselves with basic computer architecture and operating systems. Beginners should be proactive in learning the Linux commands since they are part of the basic building block in studying cyber security. Like any other field, cyber security is a broad discipline, and for beginners, they may need to focus on a specific subfield before becoming an all-rounded expert. Remember, you cannot learn everything you need to know because it is continually growing, and therefore learning does not have a terminal point. Some people might decide to explore programming, while others may emphasize digital forensic, security policies, and others may explore the broad aspect of cyber security. For beginners, the following are the main areas to be explored.
- Basic Data Analysis
- Basic Scripting or Introductory Programming
- Cyber Defense
- Cyber Threats
- Fundamental Security Design Principles
- Information Assurance Fundamentals
- Introduction to Cryptography
- Networking Concepts
- System Administration
Let us now delve into some of the cyber security books and e-books that will be resourceful in your study.
Cyber security for dummies is a free e-book that delivers fast, convenient, and easily readable content. It describes what people need to know in order to defend themselves and their organization against malicious attacks. Cyber security for dummies offers steps that users can use to protect themselves at the workplace or at home.
Top Rated Cyber Security Books of December 2024
There are many hacking handbooks and many more textbooks you might consider purchasing to improve your understanding of cyber security concepts. Here are some examples of handbooks and textbooks you will need regardless if you are a pro or a newbie in the world of cyber security.
These textbooks include:
- Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, a handbook by John Erickson.
- The Art of Invisibility: The World’s Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be
- Safe in The Age of Big Brother and Big Data, a textbook by Kevin Mitnick.
- Ghost in the wire: My Adventure as The World's Most Wanted Hacker, a textbook by Kevin Mitnick, William L. Simon.
- Social Engineering: The Science of Humanity, a textbook by Christopher Hadnagy.
- Practice Malware Analysis, a textbook by Michael Sikorski.
- The cyber-Effect, a handbook by Mary Aiken.
- Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets and Solutions, a textbook by Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray, George Kurtz.
- Threat Modeling: Designing for Security, a textbook by Adam Shostack.
How can I learn cyber security?
There is no fixed road map to enter into cyber security. Before you think of learning cyber security, you must be able to acquire both non-technical and technical skills. The non-technical attributes include genuine interests in continuous learning. Another non-technical aspect you must have is communication. By this, you must develop work habits that will enable you to communicate with your colleagues. Once you are interested, you can either learn cyber security using these methods: Formal Education (College or Technical Institutions), I.T. Certifications. Online Learning Platforms, hacker handbook, and cyber security handbook. You can also sign in to boot camps either in person or online boot camps. Remember, you can find cyber security books and hacker handbook in all major online stores like Amazon or even in libraries. You can find samples of security proposals on this website.
Is cyber security hard?
Yes, the cyber security learning path is not a walk in the park. The learning curve is never smooth for beginners. It needs the learner to be proactive as well as wholly dedicate their time to it, because cyber security is a multidisciplinary field. It would help if you had time to hold other content and understand ideas in those fields. It all depends on your interest, but you should also understand that learning is not your cup of tea. To learn it well, you must develop a study guide, and the study guide will enable you to work consistently.
What skills do I need for cyber security?
The skills you need in order to excel in cyber security are technical knowledge, logical thinking and troubleshooting, both written and verbal communication, learning new technology, and the ability to work independently. Technical skills are purely practical knowledge like penetration testing. Penetration testing is a security exercise where a cyber security expert attempts to locate and exploit vulnerabilities in a computer system or in a network. Logical reasoning is vital in troubleshooting computer network issues without causing further problems. Cyber security is also evolving at a faster rate, and therefore you need to be learning new information faster. Essentially, having a cyber security books will smoothen your learning curve.
