10 Topics You Learn in a Cybersecurity Program

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A cybersecurity program teaches you the skills you need to protect computer systems, networks, and sensitive information from cyber threats. You learn about the types of cyberthreats that affect individuals and organizations, and the security measures you can implement to prevent them. You also learn what to do after an attack. Your courses should cover subjects like cloud security, mobile forensics, and ethical hacking. Check out 10 cybersecurity essentials you need to know

1. Networking and Systems Administration

Before you can defend and protect technology systems, you need to understand how networks operate. Your program should introduce you to LANs, WANs, and protocols like TCP/IP. You need to know about operating systems like Windows, iOS, Linux, and Android and you need to be familiar with firewalls and routers. And you need to know how to configure and manage devices to secure network traffic.

2. Cybersecurity Fundamentals

A course in the fundamentals will help you understand the basics of information security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Your course should combine theoretical security models with practical real-world examples and touch upon topics such as security policies, risk analysis, cryptography, and network security.

3. Cybersecurity Management

A cybersecurity management course would teach you about the strategic and operational aspects of managing an organization’s cybersecurity efforts. It equips you with the skills and knowledge you need to understand and oversee cybersecurity programs so they align with organizational goals and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Your program should combine theoretical security models with real-world examples and include topics like security policies, risk analysis, cryptography, and network security.

4. Cyber Threats and Countermeasures

Essential to your training and your career as a cybersecurity expert is in-depth knowledge about the kinds of cyberattacks and threats an organization might face and what to do when one occurs. Your program should cover common system threats and attacks and the people and organizations behind them. Phishing, ransomware, and password hacks are a few examples. Even more critical is to learn how to prevent them. You explore methods of mitigation, including updating security software and implementing security protocol. For example, with a phishing attack, which attempts to secure personal information through a disguised email link, you can create an organizational plan for individuals to delete suspicious emails and notify IT immediately.

5. Network and Application Security

Combining cyber threat and risk management, network security lessons should teach you about firewalls, segmentation, and antivirus measures to protect computer networks and how to monitor systems to detect security incidents. This type of course should provide steps to secure an infrastructure by enhancing defenses to the core components of networks, operating systems, databases, mobile devices, and the cloud. You should learn how to test security systems, mitigate threats, and recover from an intrusion. A good program will pull from current events and recent case studies to illustrate key concepts and cyber defense techniques.

Secure networks alone don’t solve cybersecurity threats. You also need to learn how to keep web-based applications safe through the development, implementation, and maintenance of processes that will protect software applications from threats, vulnerabilities, and unauthorized access. Your program should offer insight into the practices, tools, and frameworks that secure applications at various stages of their lifecycle, including development, deployment, and ongoing use. And you should learn about loopholes in code that could be exploited by hackers.

6. Cloud Security

Data centers that represent the cloud are a popular option for organizations that have large amounts of data to store. But the cloud can be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Your program should cover physical and logical security over data centers, buildings, and offices. You should learn about ways to protect assets across all levels of technology and the core components that support that technology. You should learn how to analyze hacking methods and how to create an IT Infrastructure structure that keeps the cloud secure.

7. Computer Forensics

An important part of your cybersecurity training will be computer forensics. This specialized component involves the identification, preservation, analysis, and presentation of digital evidence to investigate and recover hacked or compromised information. Your program will teach you to play detective after a cyberattack occurs. You learn how to look for clues that can lead you to the culprit and help you identify vulnerability that needs to be fixed.

8. Ethical Hacking

To ward off a hacker, you need to understand how a hacker thinks and acts. Your program may have specific courses in ethical hacking which basically means you learn the skillset of bad actors but use the information for good. You learn how to identify vulnerabilities in tech infrastructures and try to break into systems. If you can, so can a criminal. You also learn to regularly scan, test, and monitor security measures for signs of hacking.

9. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

When a cyberattack occurs, what happens next? Your coursework will show you how to build a proper disaster management plan, so your team knows what steps to take in a crisis. You learn to assess enterprise risks, set up a disaster recovery system, implement disaster recovery policies and procedures, and prepare communication processes to provide the right information to the right people at the right time.

10. Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance

It’s good to know the guidelines that inform cybersecurity and the role the federal government plays in warding off cyberattacks. Your program should introduce you to the Risk Management Framework, created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as the roles and policies of the Department of Defense and the Committee on National Security Systems.

Are you ready to enroll in a cybersecurity program? Then contact Charter College today. We offer an Associate of Applied Science degree in Cybersecurity that can prepare you for a career in IT. You learn about cyberthreats and how to stop them from instructors who have years of experience in the field. The program is offered online for flexibility and convenience. Call 888-200-9942 or fill out the form to learn more.

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