Are you a student looking to start your Cybersecurity career in UAE?

Well, you are in the right place! Many students breaking into Cybersecurity often have thousands of questions to ask, and it takes them ages to collect research. So here I will do my best to give you everything you need to know. Consider me as your mentor for your career.

In this Blog, I will cover:

1. A little Background about myself.
2. How do you start in your Cybersecurity Career?
3. Two types of Learning process (Self-studying and University)
4. Finding the right University in UAE
5. (Detail) What paths are there in Cybersecurity
6. (Detail) What Certifications are there

But before I start writing about what you should know and what you shouldn’t let’s go back to my history.

I am a Cybersecurity Student based in Abu Dhabi, and since I was small, I have been very good with computers. Tell me to find details about a person or a thing, and I’ll do that quickly (which is called OSINT in the cybersecurity world). Tell me to get this information, and I always come back with it. It didn’t involve hacking, but a lot of social engineering (a technique used to trick the person into giving out information). But trust me, no stealing was involved. So when I joined a University here in Abu Dhabi, it took me 2 years to understand fully what this career means if pursuing in UAE. What are the certifications, what are the right stuff to go to, etc? And these questions made me question graduates and tons of people multiple times to collect information. Many who I questioned realized they also didn’t have the answers. So I started collecting them in my journal, and here they are, laid in this blog.

The first question anyone would ask is,

Where do I start?

Students who start learning Cybersecurity are exposed to many topics and fields (or paths), where they build their foundations. They then go towards the path that they love and then practice a lot.

For example, a person who likes attacking systems to find weaknesses and patch (fix) them will go towards red teaming and penetration testing (which comes under red teaming), and a person who likes to defend the system with good security controls will go towards blue teaming. It’s all about attacking and defending. And there are multiple sub-paths under them.

In easy words, students start with building foundations first. They then test their skills and practice, then they pursue the path they love, and then attempt exams to gain certifications.

Certs give them valid proof of their skills. And if the cert is popular in the job market, you will have a higher chance of getting hired, as more people would know its value. Some even create projects before getting certifications or after. But it adds a lot of value to your resume. As it is also a factor in proving your skills. Anything that proves the skill is an asset to your career.

So in short:
build foundations -> Study More -> Practice a lot -> Find the path you love -> Practice more -> Attempt Certification Exams from known companies-> Build projects-> Build a strong resume -> Get a job of your choice.

Starting the Learning Process

There are two ways a student studies in their career.

1. Self Study
2. University

Please Note: You should never rely on the University to give you all the knowledge and practice. You should always do self-study as well. Even the certifications part is also part of self-study. Universities may not cover everything, so always have your self-study going.

How do I self-study?

There are many websites recommended by top professionals to start with. But to make this easy, I would suggest two for now. These are just to get started with.

1. TryHackMe (THM): They offer Courses that cover every topic and skill, and guess what, they are structured into paths. This means you can easily see what skills you require in a path you pursue. And this helps you cover the only useful knowledge you require. Some don’t even go to University while self-studying. Because it contains everything. A one-stop to everything. To get started, click on this link, and then select pre-security as your first path.
   Note: Students get a 20% discount using student email.
2. HackTheBox (HTB): They have a few advanced courses, but students study from HTB as well when studying from THM. But at times it’s costly than TryHackMe.

Whenever students come to me asking, what should I do now? I have done my research about what the fields in cybersecurity are, and where to start. I tell them to start with trackmen. Because it’s structured for beginners to become advanced easily.

There are others like Offensive Security, Altered Security, eLearn security, etc, but you can go towards them after you’ve built intermediate to advanced knowledge.

Now about Universities

Universities contain 4–5 years of courses which ends with a diploma. Or they might be 2 years accelerated (which is rare). Many universities create their courses and many get them already created by big companies who create certs. But there is something you need to know, many courses might be useless if they are not cybersecurity-focused or contain a lot of content that doesn’t fall under cybersecurity. For example, studying Chemistry, or learning the history of all Cryptography algorithms. That stuff can be learned at home and doesn’t require studying for 4 months straight and paying a huge amount. Some may say they are useful somewhat, but you are not in school, you are in University, focus on saving time and learning as much as you can.

Finding the right University

There are many Universities to choose from, but there are a few that are really useful. Some of the best characteristics of the right Universities are:

1. They cover a lot of “useful” information and equip you with useful skills in a shorter period of time. (Many have so much extra stuff that is away from the track and will waste a lot of time, and in the end, you end up being way behind in the career than other friends from other universities) But how will I know if they are useful? I will discuss this soon.
   Some Universities also have courses offered by big companies which is a great help, as they get to do them and get certs there and there.
2. They motivate students to take certification exams and guide them about which to take and which is tending in the market.
3. They organize many events (like ctfs and hackathons) related to Cybersecurity to help you test your skills and put them into practice.
4. They offer “Practical” courses. Many Unis offer theory-only courses which is useless because your career doesn’t have you making inventions, it requires you to get your hands dirty. So not having practical knowledge hits hard when you enter the job market.

So in short:
look for Unis offering “Practical Courses”, guiding about certs, hosting or sharing events to compete in, and have most of their courses trending in the market.

Some of my recommendations are AUS (American University of Sharjah) and Abu Dhabi Polytechnic. They are the leading Universities in the UAE equipping students with the most essential skills and helping them gain certifications during their Uni-life.

Paths students choose (after building foundations)

There are many paths people choose from. But to save you time in understanding them correctly, have a look at them listed by tryhackme.

It gives a clear understanding of the paths and courses (rooms) that each of them has. You can also click and see what topics they cover, it helps you to understand what topics are needed to be covered in that path.

Now comes Certifications

There are many certifications in the market, each path or field has its certifications. Students mainly take their first certificate related to penetration testing (eJPT, OSCP, etc). They then go towards advanced in their fields. To know which one is the best in your field, a man of God has already created a website listing all useful certs in the market, here is the link: https://pauljerimy.com/security-certification-roadmap/

Ending

In this blog, I have shared information on How to start Cybersecurity, How important is self-studying, How to find the right University, and What paths people choose after building foundations. But there can be many questions you might have, so feel free to drop them below. I will do my best to answer them as quickly as I can.

Hope you have a wonderful day,

Happy hacking.