The cost of cybercrime goes far beyond the actual money invested in detecting, responding, and recovering an organization from an attack. It includes the loss of data, productivity, money, and even reputation. It can even strike so hard that it forces an organization to close its doors.
The situation has been getting worse year after year. In fact, when you go back in time, you can see that in 2015 the World Economic Forum estimated the cost of cybercrime to be $3 trillion worldwide. Today, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that it will grow by 15 percent every year for the next five years, reaching 10.5 trillion dollars by 2025. A rise of almost 7 trillion dollars in just 10 years.
Not only are hackers running one of the most lucrative “businesses,” but they are close to having zero chances of being discovered and prosecuted, according to the World Economic Forum.
These numbers only mean that organizations (private or public, small or large) are not taking action to prepare themselves for a cyber-attack. During the first six months of 2021, it became more evident than ever before. We have seen how the Colonial Pipeline suffered a major attack that shut down the gas supply for the East Coast of our country, how the NBA lost over 500GB of confidential data on the Houston Rockets, and how The Steamship Authority of Massachusetts ferry fell victim of a ransomware attack that affected its logistics and services.
How Can Organizations Mitigate the Risks
The solution here is not to fear cyber-attacks but to make your organization cyber-resilient. Anyone who works in cybersecurity must acknowledge and help their management team understand that the risk of falling victim to hackers is always there. You need to have a plan in place that will enable business continuity while responding and recovering from the attack, lowering the actual impact and cost of cybercrime in your organization.
Also, there are a few industry best practices that every organization should apply to help minimize the risks of attacks:
The first thing you need to do is provide security training for your workforce regularly. They need to spot a suspicious website or email and even identify a device that might be compromised. They need to know what to do, who to call, and how to react to an attempt against their data security.
You also need to encrypt as much data as possible, creating an identity and access policy that restricts users who have access to sensitive data, updating and patching software regularly. Most importantly, you have to be proactive and constantly strengthen your security measures.
In past blogs, we have talked about the huge need for talent in cybersecurity and the many benefits this career entails for those who decide to follow this path. But what about the training needed to succeed in this field? If you are considering making a career change or starting in cybersecurity, you will probably wonder where and what is the best way to get started. Today, we want to guide you through learning cybersecurity online. What it means, what you can expect, and the benefits against a classroom filled with people.
Learning Cybersecurity Online
Now that we finally see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, you can wonder why we suggest taking online classes when you can finally go and sit in a room filled with people (taking all social distancing precautions). The truth is that online studying does have enormous advantages from the traditional experiences, we will review them in detail later in this post, but to name a few, we can say that not only the investment is lower, but it is more flexible, it allows you to work at the same time, and you can enroll in classes around the world without relocating.
Now that we have cleared this out, we want to share some insights that can help you understand what it actually looks like to learning cybersecurity online.
The first thing we need to say is that there are different options out there, but most of them not only will share your instructors’ recordings but will require your live presence in class. That way, you will have the chance to ask questions as soon as they arise, you will be able to meet and create relationships with your instructors and classmates and grow your network, and the fact that you have everyone online watching each other makes you have a stronger commitment to complete assignments and understand the lectures. It is a highly competitive experience.
At the same time, you need to know that almost every cybersecurity training will give you assignments to complete after hours. They can be independent and/or group assignments that may be practical or written, ranging from writing to programming. But the fact is that you will need to set some weekly hours to complete them.
One last word of advice here is that it is a strategic approach to learn the basic industry terms before starting classes when you are new to a field. This will make the experience less overwhelming and make the new content you are receiving in the class feel more familiar. Also, try reading cybersecurity news and blogs, following influencers, and set your mind to feel comfortable with this new world for you.
Benefits of Online Classes
As we mentioned before, there are different reasons why enrolling in an online program can actually work better for you. Here, we highlight the ones we believe are the most attractive:
1- Online Classes Cost Less
Let’s be honest, enrolling in college can cost you a lot of money. Not only will you have to pay for classes, but all the extra expenses that come along (dorm, textbooks, extracurricular activities, and so on). An online program will help you save money, as you will only be paying for the credits you are working to earn, so there would not be extra costs associated with it.
2- Teaches In-Demand Skills
A good program gives you theoretical and practical experience, but it goes far beyond and teaches you how to master soft or human skills to help you succeed in the field. For example, attending an online cybersecurity program will help you develop attention to detail, passion for learning, responsibility, teamwork, and others.
3- No Need For Transportation
When you take online classes, you can do it from work, home, or wherever you are. You need a working Wi-Fi connection and your computer to log into the video conference program, and that’s it. Then, you are ready to dive into a world filled with knowledge. There is no need to run from one place to another, commute, spend hours in traffic, or look for a ride to college. Plus, the bright side of this is that all the hours you save from the back and forth to classes can be spent on your assignments and training.
4- Easier Access to Your Instructors
When attending an in-person class, you will mostly be able to communicate with your teachers or instructors in the halls before and after class or by actively participating in their lectures. However, in an online program, there will be different resources for you to reach them, there will be, of course, the class hours and the chat window in the video conference platform you use, but additionally, you will have email exchanges and a different chatroom for you to ask questions directly.
5- Locations Are Not an Issue
If you want to enroll in college or university, you are most likely to look for those near you, or you will have to relocate to someplace new and closer to your education option. But, with an online class, there is no need to move as you can access classes anywhere around the country and even the world. With just one click away, you have an enormous list of training options that will help you become better cybersecurity professional.
6- You Can Work And Study
One of the most attractive features of an online program is that it gives you enough flexibility to get a full-time or part-time job while you are enrolled. With this type of program, you will save time from going back and forth to classes, and you are most likely to choose a schedule that fits your routine. Just be mindful that this will require a lot of self-discipline, so you don’t get lost in all the assignments, study time, your work, and your personal life.
Do not let getting back to normal life discourage you from enrolling in an online program. In fact, it might even be the best choice for you, your life, and your work. The myths around online studying have been debunked thanks to the pandemic year.
As we mentioned in a previous post, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is part of the tools you need to protect your online activity and information from getting in the wrong hands. To put it in simple words, a VPN encrypts the data and protects your online identity by hiding your IP address. It is a must-have when using a public Wi-Fi connection.
Before diving into the steps on how to use it, we believe it is important that we guide you through some considerations you need to take when choosing the right one for you.
Figure out the main uses you will be giving to your VPN. Is it to stream movies at home? Is it for traveling or for public Wi-Fi connections? Is it for your computer or do you want to connect to different devices? All these answers will help you understand if you need one that offers more security, more bandwidth, or more servers.
Make a list of the devices you want to connect using the VPN. The majority of services support main platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS), but you want to make sure that the VPN you are considering buying will actually work in the devices you are planning to use.
Review the list of locations it offers. This might be one of the most important things to look at, make sure the locations and servers offered by the VPN cover the area where you will be and can give you a solution to tackle the geographical and censorship issues.
Look for the payment plans. We know that a free VPN is something that you might be considering, but we truly suggest you make an investment for a better and more secure service. Look at the different plans they offer, if it is a monthly or yearly subscription, their payment methods, etc.
Once you cover all these four considerations, then it might be easier for you to choose among the many VPN services, remember each one of them has different features, some of them might be the right fit for your needs while others can just turn into a waste of money. So, do take some time to review them before subscribing to a monthly fee.
Using a Virtual Private Network
Step 1: Sign Up
Once you have chosen your VPN, you will be required to sign up, create an account (email, password) and make your first payment, most providers accept traditional payment options (debit, credit cards, PayPal), while others are now accepting cryptocurrencies. After you complete this initial step, you can download the software to your computer from their official website, and/or for any other devices (you will have to look for their official app in the AppStore or GooglePlay), you will be asked to log in with your recently created account.
Step 2: Connect Using Your VPN
Usually, when you open the VPN software, it will show a “Connect” button. Once you click it, it will choose the closest server to you because it is most likely to have the better speed. If you want to connect to a specific location, you will have to go to the settings tab and choose the desired one. You will be able to mark it as preferred, so it will be easier to access it later.
Step 3: Setting Up Your VPN
Although the settings vary from provider to provider, there are several basic items that remain the same. One of the first things you should do is activate the “kill switch”, this will prevent any online activity if the VPN connection drops. Then, you should look for any malware protection, VPN protocol, security options.
Some details to keep in mind, you will need to have a working internet connection when you use your VPN and make sure to set the “auto-connect” feature so it starts running as soon as you turn on your device and you always work through a safe connection. Also, keep in mind that using a VPN is not rocket science, providers have managed to make them as friendly and easy to use as possible, and for most of them, you only need the initial setup.
Staying on top of this ever changing industry can be a daunting task. We have found that one of the best ways to do it is by gaining insight from top cybersecurity influencers, men and women who are constantly sharing information, trends, news, latest attacks, and best practices in their social networks or websites.
1-Troy Hunt
Renowned Australian author of different courses of web security. He runs the free service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), that helps people figure out if their email address or passwords are compromised in a data breach. He is constantly speaking in security workshops around the world, and he has even testified in the US Congress on the impact of data breaches. Troy publishes weekly updates that cover various topics of what is happening in cybersecurity and related fields.
Once the most elusive computer hacker in history, he joined the FBI’s most wanted list for hacking into more than 40 major corporations worldwide, not with malicious intent, rather than for the fun and challenge it represented. After running from the feds for three years, he is now a trusted security consultant to the Fortune 500 and different governments.
A Finnish security expert that has worked since 1991 in F-Secure, a global security and privacy company with offices in more than 30 countries around the world. Mikko has been published by The New York Times, Wired, and Scientific American. He is also a frequent lecturer in the Universities of Stanford, Oxford, and Cambridge. It is very interesting to read a man that has more than 20 years of experience tracking, disabling, and dissecting malware.
American computer security researcher and writer who is most known for her campaigns on responsible security research. She was part of the creators of a bug bounty program for the US Department of Defense called “Hack the Pentagon” and also for Microsoft. She is the founder of Luta Security, an organization that aims to transform the way governments and companies are using people, processes, and tools to improve vulnerability coordination and their overall security. In 2014, Katie was named by SC Magazine as one of the “10 Women in Information Security That Everyone Should Know”.
Described by The Economist as a “Security Guru”, Bruce Schneier is a famous security technologist that has written numerous books in application security and cryptography. His newsletter has been running since 1998 and his blog since 2004, he now has over 250,000 readers around the globe. He has served on different government committees, testified before the Congress of the United States and he is the Chief Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.
Before creating his own cybercrime blog, KrebsOnSecurity, he worked as a reporter for the Washington Post interviewing hackers for the computer security section. Since then, he is known for his coverage of cybercriminals and their acts around the world. Several times he has fallen victim, yet this has only made him more interested in the field.
Brian is the author of an award-winning book called “Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime – From Global Epidemic to Your Front Door”, he is also responsible for breaking the story of the Target Corporation breach in 2013 and figuring out who was the man behind the scam.
Russian cybersecurity expert and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT company with over 4,000 employees, well known for their antivirus products. In his blog, he shares personal opinions on current cybersecurity and IT topics, news, and industry developments.
After creating the first version of Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus toolkit for Windows, Graham Cluley worked for Sophos and McAfee. He then decided to become an independent cybersecurity analyst. He can be frequently found as a speaker in security events around the world talking about cybercrime.
An IT security expert, founder of two cybersecurity companies, and one of the most influential women in the field, she usually talks and writes about the connection between technology, psychology and cybersecurity.
Twitter: 55.9K@shirastweet
10- Jayson Street
Jayson Street is VP of InfoSec at SphereNY. He is best known for breaking into supposedly unbreakable sites to teach companies, governments, and end users why and how to protect their cybersecurity posture.
If you read websites such as TechCrunch and ZDNet.com, you probably have read a piece by Zack Whittaker. He is the security editor for TechCrunch covering mainly news and topics related to cybersecurity and tech.
Larry is the Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of TechRepublic. He has covered the technology and financial industry since 1995, and has published articles in different news sites such as WallStreetWeek.com, [email protected] Week, The New York Times.
These 12 cybersecurity influencers will help you stay on top of the latest trends and news in the field. Start following them, reading their content, and of course, don’t forget to follow CyberWarrior in all of our social media channels to get familiarized with the industry and what our academy has to offer.
We are living in a world where technology is taking place in our everyday tasks. We have speakers, computers, TVs, printers, phones, and even vacuums interconnected to one another, always leaving a place for bad guys to grab control of our systems, and even worse, our personal information.
If you are one of those who believe that you do not have an “interesting” life for hackers, my friend, you are wrong. They are looking to get ahold of social security numbers, credit card information, data related to your work or your child’s school, anything that can open the doors for information they can use to perpetuate a profitable action.
It is time that we internalize that if we want to live with the technological advances of the 21st century, we need to start taking action to protect ourselves and our families from becoming another number in the hacking statistics.
CyberWarrior’s Tips for Your Security at Home
To make this article valuable for anyone out there, we asked our CEO, Reinier Moquete, what his top security recommendations are. Here are the four actions he suggests you start implementing at home as soon as possible:
1- Setting Up 2 Factor Authentication
How many passwords do you have? At least one for your Wi-Fi, your personal email, school/work email, each one of your social media accounts, banks, and others. It is pretty hard to create and remember a different password for every account. To better protect your data, it is important to add an extra layer of security.
The best way to do so is by setting up 2-factor authentication. With it in place, instead of gaining access to your account once you add your login information, you will need to complete a second step. It can be a PIN, answers to secret questions, an OTP (one-time password sent by SMS or email), a keystroke pattern, or more sophisticated options such as your fingerprint scan or iris scan.
The correct use of 2-factor authentication prevents anyone from accessing your accounts, even if they have one of the security parts of your login.
There are different options out there for you. Some of them are Google Authenticator, Duo Mobile, Microsoft Authenticator, FreeOTP, LastPass Authenticator, Authy.
2- Using a Password Manager
We highly recommend having a unique password for every account you own. Please do not use it more than once, as it increases the chances of losing more personal information. Also, it is not smart to write down your login information, as it can get to the wrong hands.
To ease this password handling issue, we suggest you get a password manager. It will encrypt and store your login information for every website you use and help you log in automatically. You will only need to remember the master password.
There are many options in the market, but at CyberWarrior, we believe that the best options are Dashlane, LastPass, and KeePass.
3- Connecting Through a VPN
Have you ever thought about what happens with your personal information online? Have you ever connected using public Wi-Fi? Or have you thought of who knows what your online activity is? If any of these questions made you nod, it is probably time for you to get a Virtual Private Network or VPN.
This is an encrypted connection between the device you are using (phone, tablet, computer, others) and the internet. Meaning that no one can see what you are up to.
There are a lot of good, free VPNs out there, but they have a limited selection of servers and only allow you to use small data to navigate the internet. That is why we suggest you invest in a trusty service such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Hotspot Shield, PureVPN, or IPVanish.
4- Turning On HD Encryption
One of the most powerful tools to protect the data in your computer is full disk encryption. It basically transforms the information stored there into an unreadable format that can only be decrypted by those allowed to access it with a secret key or password.
To do this on your computer, you will need to get an encryption tool and a storage backup drive. Among the best tools in the market are: BitLocker, Guardium, Boxcryptor, DiskCryptor, and VeraCrypt.
There is no 100% guarantee when it comes to security, but having in place all these four actions will help scare the hackers away from your home and family. And also, keep in mind that you should all read the basics of online security so you can prevent clicking on a phishing email, on social media cyber-crimes, or any other hacking technique.
As cybersecurity experts, we owe a lot of what we know today to the great mind and life of Alan Turing. This blog is a way to remember his work, innovations, and contribution to modern computing.
Early Years
He was an English mathematician, logician, and the pioneer of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was born in London on the 23rd of June of 1912. Since he was a little kid at school, his intelligence was more than clear. It is reported that he did not pay much attention to classes but still could get the highest grades in tests. As a result, he had different teachers call him a “genius.”
His experience studying mathematics at the University of Cambridge gave him a few years filled with work, social life, and sports. He even joined the peace movement against the rise of Hitler. He graduated with a first-class honor’s degree. And then headed to Princeton University to earn his Ph.D. in the same field. During this time, he made the “Turing Machine,” the first notion of a universal computing machine that could solve complex calculations.
Once he went back to England, he was invited to join the Government Code and Cypher School (now known as the GCHQ), a top-secret British code-breaking organization. Once World War II started in 1939, Alan decided to move the organization’s wartime headquarters to Bletchley Park, where he completed one of his most notable achievements: cracking the “Enigma Code.”
Alan Turing & The Enigma Code
The Enigma was an enciphering machine used by the German armed forces to send secure messages during wartime. At the time, a team of Polish codebreakers cracked these codes, but once the Germans noticed this had happened, they improved their controls by changing the cipher system daily. Then Turing came along.
Alan Turing took some of the systems the Polish had developed and, with the help of the fellow code-breaker Gordon Welchman, he developed the “Bombe,” a machine that decoded messages sent from the Enigma, not only helping ease the work for code-breakers at that time but helping gain intelligence for war efforts.
His efforts also helped decrypt more complex information during the war. With the “Hut 8” team at Bletchley Park, they read German naval signs from submarines prowling in the Atlantic to hunt Allied ships that carried equipment and other vital things for the war efforts. In addition, the Hut 8 team was in charge of charting the movements of the German submarines, so the Allied forces could avoid them and successfully deliver their cargo.
His breakthroughs during World War II helped ease the path to more pacific times, and at the end of the war, his government recognized him as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Life After World War II
Once the war finished, Turing went back to study and work in computer science and designed the Automatic Computer Engine, which he believed would offer “unlimited scope for practical progress towards embodying intelligence in an artificial form.” He was then made Deputy Director of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Manchester and was the first to address Artificial Intelligence.
In 1952, the police investigated a burglary in his house when he admitted he had a sexual relationship with Arnold Murray. He was arrested for homosexuality, which was illegal in Britain at that time. He was later found guilty of “gross indecency” and decided to avoid prison by accepting chemical castration by taking high doses of estrogen to reduce sex drive. Two years later, he was found dead, in an apparent suicide from cyanide poisoning. His death was never examined, but something that remained true is that homosexuals could not complete security clearances, which meant that Alan Turing could not be involved in secret work during the Cold War. His conviction was overturned in 2013.
Are you familiar with the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)? If not, this is an annual analysis of the security incidents that occurred over the course of a year. It centers most of the work on data breaches. It was first published in 2008. Since then, they have increased the number of organizations’ data (public and private) they collect to provide a more robust report on breaches, threat actors, types of organizations targeted, and more.
This year, the Data Breach Report was built out of 5,258 breaches from 88 countries around the world. The largest number they have ever reported, and it turned into a 119-page publication. Going through its pages, we found many interesting and important pieces of information that we think will help you, our readers, better understand what happened during the first year of the pandemic in the cybersecurity industry.
We don’t expect you to read through all the pages. But, if you want to do it, please take your time so you can fully digest their findings. You can access the report using this link. In this blog post, we share a summary of what we consider major trends that can impact your actions and plans to prevent cybersecurity incidents in your organizations.
Key Findings From the Verizon Data Breach Report 2021
Just as the DBIR states, this “publication is not in the business of prediction… you don’t need a crystal ball, a neural network, or next-gen AI to tell you what the norm is,” but it can be beneficial when creating or updating your response strategy. For example, by understanding how a normal data breach happens, you can improve against it and the exceptions.
1- Organized crime continues to dominate, year after year, the number one position when it comes to attackers. In fact, 80% of data breaches are attributed to them. However, we find it important to say that the study did find a decrease in internal actors being the cause of data breaches.
2- The vast majority of data breach attacks are due to financial reasons. Espionage and other motivations are only responsible for less than 10% of the attacks.
3- Even with the pandemic going on, the top action varieties in breaches remained the same from the past report. Phishing is still number one, but with the pandemic, we saw an increase from 25% to 36% of breaches attributed to it.
4- Ransomware attacks are on the rise. The report concludes that it is the third cause of data breaches, and it doubled its frequency from last year.
5- Human factor continues to be one of the biggest cybersecurity threats. 85% of data breaches involve a human element, and to make things even scarier for organizations, the report claims that employees are still making mistakes that cause security incidents and breaches.
6- External cloud assets are more likely to be compromised by an attack than on-premises assets.
7- Attackers are using older vulnerabilities to exploit and gain access to systems and networks. Making it clear that organizations need to improve their patching performance. “To patch smarter, not harder, by using vulnerability prioritization not necessarily to improve security, but to improve organization’s productivity.” To put it in other words, you are taking steps further from downtime for every patch you apply.
8- Hackers are looking to steal credentials, in fact, it is the most sought-after data type, and it is the fastest to get compromised.
9- Privilege misuse and system intrusion are the types of breaches that take longer to be discovered by an organization.
10- The average cost of a business email compromise attack is $19,296. At the same time, the median loss in a ransomware attack was $11,150.
Industry-Specific Data
This year the Data Breach Report included the analysis of 12 industries, demonstrating that each one of them suffered attacks and threats in different ways. This will vary according to their infrastructure, the data they collect, and their interactions with groups of interest (customers, employees, vendors, and others). Some of them are:
1- Financial and insurance organizations frequently face credential and ransomware attacks from external actors.
2- Healthcare is still vulnerable to human factors as misdelivery is the most common error causing security problems. On a more positive note, since 2019, the industry has seen a shift from branches caused by internal actors to external actors that are looking to compromise both personal (66%) and medical (55%) data.
3- Public administration has been the perfect target for social engineering attacks, as hackers have managed to craft credible phishing emails to gain access to credentials (80%) and personal information (18%).
4- The retail industry faces financially motivated attacks of criminals trying to get credit cards and personal information. The most common social tactics in this sector are pretexting and phishing.
As we said before, these numbers give us a better understanding of what has been the most common behavior for cybercriminals and data breaches over the last year. It can help us prepare and plan our security measures, but we cannot consider them to predict the future of our organization. A word of advice would be to put in place security training for everyone in your staff, patch and solve past vulnerabilities, and establish an identity and access management to better control who has access to technology.
If you think cybersecurity movies are about a guy sitting in front of a computer fighting hackers, then you have it all wrong. A good cybersecurity movie is one that gives you an entertaining moment filled with crime, mystery, adventure, and action. They are all about secret documents getting into the wrong hands, discovering and fighting conspiracy theories, the work of secret agencies, and more. Interested already?
If you are, we compiled a list of 6 cybersecurity movies you should watch. Once you finish reading these snippets you will be begging for the weekend to arrive and just sit in front of your TV with a bunch of popcorn all day long.
1- Snowden (2016)
Oliver Stone directed this biopic of the former National Security Agency contractor who slowly got disillusioned with the slippery tactics of his superiors and decided to start leaking classified information. Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, claims that citizens must be informed that the government has access and surveils their emails, social media accounts, computer cameras, and more. Is he the greatest traitor or patriot in American history?
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo
Runtime: 2h 14min
2- The Great Hack (2019)
A documentary that goes deep into the Cambridge Analytica scandal through the narratives of different people affected by it. Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim rolled out an extraordinary film that will make you think twice before sharing any personal data online.
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Stars: Brittany Kaiser, David Carroll, Paul-Oliver Dehaye
Runtime: 1h 54min
3- Who Am I (2014)
Baran bo Obdar directs this German thriller where we see how a young computer expert, who feels lost, starts a race to become a professional hacker. At some point he gets an invitation from a group of online disruptors to join CLAY (Clown Laughing At You), an organization with the goal of humiliating large corporations.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Stars: Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek, Wotan Wilke Mohring
Runtime: 1h 42min
Trailer:
4- The Imitation Game (2014)
With 8 Oscars nominations, this historical drama by Morten Tyldum, guides us through the story of the legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, and his race to crack the German Enigma code and help the Allies during World War II.
Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode
Runtime: 1h 54min
5- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009)
In this film, we will be immersed in a story of a young female hacker who helps a journalist track down a woman that has been missing for forty years. They quickly find out that they need to protect themselves once they start unveiling dark family secrets.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer
Runtime: 2h 38min
6- Swordfish (2001)
In this film by Dominic Sena, we are driven through the story of a spy named Gabriel who plots to steal over nine billion dollars that are held behind super-encryption. He hires a convicted hacker to help him in this race to get the money and fight against international terrorism.
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Stars: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry
Runtime: 1h 39min
There are a lot of great cybersecurity movies out there. Which one would you add to this list? Care to share in our social accounts!
Anyone out there considering investing in a cybersecurity bootcamp is probably leveraging the pros and cons of this decision. Is it worth the time and money? What is the return of the investment? How fast will I see it? These are just some examples of the questions you may be asking yourself and others who have followed a similar path.
The same thing happens when it comes to cybersecurity training. The first thing we want to do is congratulate you for considering a fast-growing, hot industry that currently has hundreds of thousands of job openings and that also has professionals with a high level of satisfaction with their careers. But, this does not make cybersecurity an exception, meaning that anyone considering getting trained for this field will probably navigate through questions such as: what is the right education path to follow? Should I consider a degree? Or is a bootcamp enough to get me started and land a job? How fast can I see the return of investment in training? How many certifications should I earn to get started?
We want to help you find the right answers. Of course, some of them may vary depending on your professional and educational background. Still, in general terms, we consider that the best place to start your cybersecurity training is a bootcamp, and we are not just saying this because we offer one in our academy. We want to deep-dive into the main reasons why we consider it a smart investment when contemplating a career change or your next step for your professional development.
Is A Cybersecurity Bootcamp A Good Investment?
Short answer: yes. But, let’s dig deeper into the most important reasons that will help you understand why:
1- A Bootcamp Will Require a Lower Investment
On average, a cybersecurity bootcamp in the United States can cost between $12,000 to $24,000, numbers that can be considered a bit too high. But when you see the average salary ($70,500) you can start earning once you graduate, it will not be as frightening as it sounds. On the other hand, remember these are programs that can last from 12 to 36 weeks, meaning that in less than 6 months, you will be ready to start working on an entry-level position.
2- Bootcamp Focus In Hands-On Experience
We have said in the past. Cybersecurity is not a field you can learn by sticking to books and theory. You need to test your knowledge by facing real-life problems. That is why a good cybersecurity bootcamp offers a curriculum designed with experiential learning to give you real examples of how the content discussed in classes is relevant during an attack.
3- They Offer In-Demand Skills Development
Anyone can study cybersecurity, but people with certain skills have had an easier road to success. A good program will help you develop foundational technical abilities (such as understanding the architecture, administration, and management of different operating systems, knowledge of common programming and scripting languages), practical skills, and soft skills (research and writing instincts, a teacher’s disposition, collaboration, consultative thinking, and a passion for learning).
4- Recruiters Highly value Bootcamps
Just as we, and students, are aware of the many benefits a cybersecurity bootcamp offers, so are hiring managers and recruiters. They understand that this type of training not only guides through the theoretical knowledge, but it goes above and beyond: it puts into practice everything that has been discussed during the classes, it centers most of its time in hands-on experience, it helps students develop soft or human skills that will help them perform better in their jobs, and skilled instructors guide them.
With all of this in mind, we leave you with a question: is a cybersecurity bootcamp a good investment?
If you are reading this, it is because you are considering getting enrolled in a cybersecurity bootcamp. Once you have taken the first step and completed the admission (if it has one), you are most likely to get tangled with questions about your decision: Is it worth my time and money? Is cybersecurity as hard as it looks? Am I going to be able to complete it? At CyberWarrior, we believe that you will succeed with the right mindset, the right attitude, and a clear set of goals.
But, to make this experience easier for you, we came up with a list of tips. Consider we have been in this business for a while now, and we want this exhausting and complex path to be as enriching and useful as it can be.
Four Tips for Bootcamp First-Timers
Tip #1: Do Not Be Afraid To Ask Questions
The first thing to keep in mind is that there is no need to stop yourself from asking questions to your instructors, even if that means reaching out when completing an assignment or during a class. You are there to learn, just as any other classmate. If you have problems completing some work, try to guide your instructor through the different approaches you attempted, so he/she can better guide you at what went wrong.
Tip #2: Do Not Feel Discouraged
Just as it would happen in any other place, there will probably be someone with a different background or some cybersecurity experience. Do not let that discourage you from your goal: getting into the cybersecurity industry. And always keep in mind that anyone, it does not matter their background, can be successful in this field. With the right education, training, and skills, you will be able to reach high-level positions, a rewarding career, and the satisfaction of helping your organization, and even your country, be safe from security threats.
This bootcamp is just the first step into an amazing career. Comparing yourself to your classmates is not going to take you anywhere. Instead, try a more positive approach and learn from their experience, advice, and tricks.
Tip #3: It Is More Than OK To Take Breaks
You are in this for the long run, so that you will face some exciting and frustrating moments. So take some time, even schedule it in your agenda, take a break, eat, meditate, exercise, be with your family, and even take a nap. A well-rested mind is more effective than an exhausted one.
Tip #4: Enjoy The Ride
This is a lifetime experience. You will spend hours with your classmates and instructors, it will open the doors to a better job and a better life, so do not focus only on the hard things, but try to make it as fulfilling and enjoyable as possible. Take time to get to know each other, build your network, and prepare yourself for new beginnings.
One last piece of advice is to never, ever pull the break. This is going to be a very demanding moment in your life. Still, the satisfaction of completing a cybersecurity bootcamp, and the many doors it will open, are going to make it worthwhile.
