IT & Cybersecurity Foundations Career Path
Get everything you need to start your cybersecurity career journey, and stop wasting your time (and money) sorting through unreliable information from questionable sources. While this industry offers very lucrative career opportunities, finding accurate, relevant information to break into the field can be incredibly frustrating. That’s why we’ve crafted this IT and Cybersecurity Foundations path, featuring thoughtful, bite-sized content from expert instructors covering core concepts found across all cybersecurity roles. These instructors have helped thousands of other beginners grasp essential IT and cybersecurity topics. Get ready to take your first steps into cybersecurity by diving into core concepts needed for any cybersecurity role. Build practical skills and gain confidence as you begin your cybersecurity journey.
Purpose Statement
Overview
Who is this career path for?
This path is for newcomers who are just beginning to explore IT and cybersecurity careers and skillsets. Whether you’ve recently graduated with a technical degree or are making a pivot from a technical or operations-focused role.What skills will I gain by completing this path?
This path covers foundational skills that all cybersecurity roles and job functions are built upon. You’ll learn key concepts and skills including: Wireshark, NMAP, Cryptography, Firewall, IDS, and Vulnerability scanner basics.Will this prepare me for an entry-level role?
This course will prepare you to begin the search for your first cybersecurity role. While more specialized skills may be needed for your desired role, this path is designed to get you comfortable with essential concepts and on-the-job skills, giving you confidence to start the application and interview process.What prerequisites are needed for this career path? Do I need on-the-job experience?
No previous experience, knowledge, or skills are required for this path. All you need is intellectual curiosity and a growth-oriented mindset. On-the-job experience is not required but may be helpful for learners transitioning from a technical role in a different field.Incident handling is a critical aspect of cybersecurity — Incident Handlers ensure that organizations can detect, contain, and recover from cyber threats effectively. Without a structured response plan, security breaches can be chaotic events with significant consequences, including data loss, reputational damage, financial harm, and regulatory penalties.
As cyber threats grow more complex, companies rely on Incident Handlers to minimize downtime, prevent future attacks, and strengthen the organization’s overall security posture.
An Incident Handler collects and analyzes evidence related to a threat or attack, determines root cause, directs other security analysts and team members in how to stop the attack, and implements rapid system and service recovery.
Other Incident Handler responsibilities and job requirements may include:
- Developing incident response plans
- Implementing incident response plans
- Detecting and monitoring threats
- Developing security policies and procedures
- Evaluating the severity and impact of security threats
- Collecting digital evidence to determine the root cause of an incident
This is a mid-to-senior-level collection. We recommend familiarity with network fundamentals, network monitoring and threat hunting, and cybersecurity policy.
This career path is designed for learners with prior experience in cybersecurity who wish to specialize in building secure IT ecosystems. This includes current mid-career IT and security practitioners looking to transition into a Security Engineer role. Experienced security engineering practitioners will also benefit from reviewing core concepts and testing their skills in this path's Challenge and Assessment modules.
Test your Scripting and Programming Fundamentals knowledge and skills with this brief assessment. Identify your strengths, gaps, and weaknesses, and get targeted course and virtual lab recommendations to improve your scores and measure your skills development growth.
You will answer questions and complete tasks on PowerShell, BASH, and Python.
Prove your capability as an effective cybersecurity professional to yourself, your boss, or prospective employer
Responsibilities and job requirements vary greatly across IT and cybersecurity functions, but here are some tasks you may be responsible for in an entry-level IT or cybersecurity role:
- Monitoring and managing networks and systems
- Troubleshooting hardware and software issues
- Maintaining IT infrastructure
- Identifying security vulnerabilities
- Implementing security measures
- Ensuring systems meet compliance guidelines
- Using programming languages to automate security tasks
This career path is designed for learners who have no prior experience in IT or Cybersecurity, but are interested in pursuing a career in this exciting field. Learners should have a working knowledge of modern technology, basic analytical skills, and a strong desire to learn. Previous on-the-job experience in IT or cybersecurity is not required.
Course Outline
Network Reference Models
In this hands-on lab, you will learn about the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models and how they are used to organize the communications standards used by computer networks. You will then explore the different layers of the two models using Wireshark and a PCAP file containing wireless network traffic.
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Greatest investment I have made to dateCybrary is solely responsible for my passing the CompTIA A+ exam and is the reason I am going into my Net+ with confidence. I have learned a great deal through virtual labs, practice tests, recorded lessons, and the various other things they offer. The community is great as well. Got a question about the interview process for a tech job? Ask in discord. Just got a cert? Post it in discord and let the reactions and comments flow making you feel great about yourself. It is an all around wonderful experience and I rate it as a totally worthwile expense for starting or furthering your career in the IT industry. Invest in yourself.
Training is coolEasy to enroll, instructors are enthusiastic and professionnal, technical stuff is very well explained.
I've been having concerns on how to start in terms of building my #cybercareer with a sustained path. So I got introduced to Cybrary and I was able to enroll and startup early last week and I have gone through two sessions, getting to know Cybrary and also a view of what cybersecurity is from their perspective. That gave me an overall view of what jobs are found in the space, their general responsibilities, required skills, necessary certifications and their average salary pay... Cybrary has given me a greater reason to pursue my hearts desire at all cost.
Thanks to Cybrary I'm now a more complete professional! Everyone in [the] cybersecurity area should consider enrollment in any Cybrary courses.
The interviewer said the certifications and training I had completed on my own time showed that I was a quick learner, and they gave me a job offer.
Our partnership with Cybrary has given us the opportunity to provide world-class training materials at no cost to our clients, thanks to the funding we’ve received from the government. Cybrary offers a proven method for building a more skilled cybersecurity workforce.
All of the knowledge, skills, and abilities gained through the program were essential to me impressing the employer during the interview.
Cybrary is a one-stop-shop for my cybersecurity learning needs. Courses on vulnerability management, threat intelligence, and SIEM solutions were key for my early roles. As I grow into leadership roles influencing business policy, I’m confident Cybrary will continue developing the knowledge and skills I need to succeed.
After tens of minutes, I proudly have achieved my certificate of continuing education for Intro to Infosec... Doing everything I can to avoid retaking the CISSP test! Thanks Cybrary - 1 CPE at a time!
We’ve had six students this summer, all with different schedules, so we’ve been trying to balance their learning experience with some practical work. It’s not like they’re all sitting in a classroom at the same time, so the ability for them to learn at their own pace without any additional support has probably been the biggest benefit of using Cybrary.
Just finished the third out of four MITRE ATT&CK Defender courses on Cybrary... If anyone is interested in learning how to do ATT&CK based SOC assessments I would definitely recommend this course. The best part is that it is FREE!
Excellent new series of courses from Cybrary, each course covers a different CVE, demonstrates vulnerability and its mitigation.
I've successfully completed the career path provided by Cybrary to become a SOC Analyst - Level 2. Eventually, do what you love, and do it well - that's much more meaningful than any metric.
Cybrary is helping me proactively build skills and advance my career. Labs put concepts immediately into practice, reinforcing the content (and saving me time not having to spin up my own VM). Career paths lay everything out clearly, so I know what skills to prioritize.
I got a job as a cybersecurity analyst at Radware with a salary I've never even dreamed about AND with no prior experience.
Thank you to Cybrary for providing this opportunity to complete the Cybrary Orientation Certification program with such sleekness and detail-oriented learning.
So far I have really been enjoying Cybrary's SOC Analyst Training, it has been very informative. I just finished up with the command line section and now I'm on to the more fun stuff (Malware Analysis). I think it's so dope that platforms like this exist. This is a game changer.
I decided to check out Cybrary and the courses they had to offer after seeing a few posts from people who had completed their courses. I'm happy to say that their instructors are knowledgeable and clear, and their course catalogues are extensive and offer relevant career path courses.
Glad to have discovered Cybrary they are such a great tool to use to help diversify your knowledge through lessons, assessments and practices. All compact[ed] into highly detailed and informative chunks of information. Feeling very content with the results.
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I am currently working in a restaurant and going to school full time. But it is not stopping me from working on gaining more and more skills. I have already spent more than 30 hours on Become a SOC Analyst level 1 [with] Cybrary and still have 67 hours to go.