• Cybersecurity is the practice of securing or protecting systems, networks, devices, applications, and sensitive data from cyberattacks from malicious actors. Such attacks are aimed to compromise the security and privacy by unauthorised access of sensitive information, by tampering or destroying the  system, or even by blocking access to the system and its contents. Cybersecurity mainly deals with digital data. 

   A few analogies we can think of about cybersecurity are: 

  • Putting a lock on the main gate of your house while taking care of security inside your house in the forms of compartmentalization and layered security 
  • Controlling who and what can enter your house, keeping out unwanted visitors 
  • Keeping a guard on duty who assesses and stops threats before they can harm or damage your premises 
  • Keeping your most confidential, sensitive, and important documents in fire-proof safe or in bank locker 

Information Security (or InfoSec) is synonymous in most contexts. However, it focuses on protecting any type of data, not just digital data. Information Security also deals with compliance and policies to protect the data and not just the techniques.  

Hence, cybersecurity can be thought of as a subset of Information Security. Information Security is the overarching area covering a wide array of security-related considerations, including Cybersecurity, Encryption, Disaster Recovery, and so on. 

The attackers or malicious actors take advantage of the design flaws of the system or network, or else try to brute force their way into it. Such attacks aim to compromise security and privacy by unauthorised access to sensitive information, tampering with or destroying the system, or even blocking access to the system and its contents.   

Cybersecurity deals with protecting digital data from such attacker. Cybersecurity professionals act like soldiers at our boarder trying to protect systems with critical, confidential and sensitive information.  

Every organization today needs to protect themselves given the loss they can incur if they attacked by such treat actors. This is where Cybersecurity professions provide the eyes, ear and nose for the 360 degree security. 

Cybersecurity is needed every in today’s world: 

• Cybersecurity is used to protect critical, confidential and sensitive information and digital assets in area like Finance, Retail, Large Enterprises, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Smart Cities, Travel industry, and anything else we see around us 
• It is also used extensively behind the scene to protect us from threat actors at the national level, thereby helping in national security 
• Defence forces use Cybersecurity to protect us from external attackers and also protect their sensitive information of national interest 

This course is for you, if you are: 

• A professional in another area who is exploring cybersecurity as a career option 
• A student who would like to get practical skill-set in cybersecurity as part of your academics or as a career option 
• A fresh graduate who wants to get into the exciting field of Cybersecurity 
• A cybersecurity professional or researcher trying to enhance your knowledge 
• A faculty teaching cybersecurity or information security  

In short, if you are passionate about learning and being part of elite group of top 5% professionals, this course is for you. 

• Cybersecurity professionals possess an overall and complete view of things 
• They understand the deep working of the system and solution very well. They know OS internals, protocols, system architecture, the Internet, etc. 
• Senior cybersecurity professionals are domain experts and hence can advise on features and solutions even outside of their comfort zone 
• Cybersecurity professionals are very curious individuals who love solving complex problems and overcoming new challenges. They are also able to pick up new skills within days 
• The compensation for cybersecurity jobs is above average, and hence it results in a rewarding career 

 If you love system programming and OS internals, and have a very keen analytical ability, then Cybersecurity is the right choice for you 

Our learning approach focuses on making the learners curious about the subject so that the learning is self-sustained. This is done by teaching all the concepts in a simple-to-understand way backed by hands-on assignments, quizzes, discussions, and real-world case studies. 

We also assess the competence of all the learners on a periodic basis and then work with them to ensure they are job ready.  

The learning approach focuses on getting mastery in important areas of Cybersecurity so that you can: 

1. Know the threat actors 
2. Know your digital assets 
3. Protect your data 
4. Prevent malware 
5. Be compliant 

If you want to become a lifelong learner, have a responsible position in reputed companies, become one of the most important gates for the safety and security of you product, and have a rewarding career, cybersecurity is for you. Please note, these points are related to each other and hence rather than achieving them one at a time, you work on all and level up in each of them as you practice.  

There is a large number of jobs open in all the areas of Cybersecurity. Typically, a cybersecurity professional can work on one of areas when they are starting their career: 

• Penetration testing or Pen Testing, to bring out the weaknesses 
• Vulnerability and Threat Surface Assessment to find the attack surface 
• Security Posture Identification to understand the overall posture of the system 
• Passive Scanning and Reconnaissance to gather information 
• Compliance and Governance with international standards, e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPPA 
• Intrusion Detection and Anomaly Detection by using Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning models 
• Digital Forensics for solving a cybercrime 
• System Hardening to make the system less vulnerable to attacks 
• SecOps or Security Operations to automate and standardise various operations 
• Security games to simulate offensive and defensive security – Blue Team, Red Team, Purple Team 
• Reverse Engineering to find insights which are visible by any other means 
• Working with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and APM (Application Performance Monitoring) for analysis at scale 
• Report, monitor and mitigate vulnerabilities using standard frameworks like SCAP (CVE, CVSS, etc.) 
• And many other things…