Cyber Security is the field of computer science that deals with protecting data, providing safety against external attacks, protecting our system against viruses and malware’s and even finding and exploiting loopholes in various websites, programs, systems etc. In the present age, where computers are being used in almost every walk of life, computer security is critical.
Even though there is a major demand for Computer Science and Engineering in India, there is, surprisingly, a real shortage of cyber security experts in the country. This can be attributed to people’s lack of knowledge about the field. In many countries children are trained in security while they are as young as 13 years.
Due to the lack of people working in this field, and its high importance in the present world, Cyber Security is currently a hot topic in computer science and if you are an expert in this field then its practically guaranteed that you will land up with an excellent job. But a person becomes an expert in the field, only if he/she has interest, passion and dedication for the field. Many have the doubt “But I don’t even know the ABCD of computers. Then how am I ever going to be good in a topic like Cyber Security ?”. Don’t worry. All you need, like I said before, is interest, passion and dedication. The rest will fall in place automatically if these essential ingredients are already present.
There are mainly five subdivisions of Cyber Security, namely – Reverse Engineering, Binary Exploitation, Web Exploitation, Cryptography and Forensics. Besides these there are also many more topic within Cyber Security like Hardware Security, Kernel Exploitation etc. I am myself a newbie in this field and the way I got started with Cyber Security was with playing picoctf, a beginner level CTF.
A Capture The Flag (CTF) is a Security Contest in which the player will be presented with many challenges (questions). The aim of each challenge is to get a flag which is usually a random string for example – flag{yez_you_hav3_g0t_1t}. When the flag is submitted points are gained and the team with the maximum number of points at the end of the stipulated time, wins the CTF. The challenges are usually divided into the above mentioned subdivisions. Solving a challenge requires presence of mind, some problem solving skills, knowledge of some tools and of course some knowledge about the topic on which the challenge is based upon.
If you are also looking to try out Cyber Security then I would recommend you to start by playing picoctf. You can register as an individual. The beginning challenges would be pretty easy (maybe converting hex to decimal or viewing source code of a webpage :)). But as you progress with the game, the challenges will keep getting harder and you will need to do some research on the topic before you solve the challenge. But keep trying and don’t give up and definitely DON’T google for solutions :).
As you get on with picoctf you will eventually find out that the problems of one of the subdivisions interests you more than the others. This is the topic that you should pursue for at least a year or two. Here is a basic description of the five main subdivisions of Cyber Security –
- Reverse Engineering – it deals with finding out the source code of a program whose executable is provided.
- Binary Exploitation – it deals with exploiting the vulnerabilities (loopholes) that are present in the program.
- Web Exploitation – it mainly deals with finding vulnerabilities within webpages and thus attacking the webpage via the vulnerability.
- Cryptography – it is the study of various encryption techniques and decrypting a given encrypted text.
- Forensics – it is the application of various techniques to gather evidence that can be presented in court.
Now go on and try out Cyber Sec ;). Don’t be afraid to try. If you find that its not your cup of tea then you always can drop out later. But try it. The thrill that you will get after solving a challenge will be worth all the effort that you had put in and all the frustration that you had to overcome, believe me.
I request everyone reading this post to voice their comments about this post and of course any suggestion’s are always welcome.
Thanks for having the patience to read this. Hope it was useful.