How to be a SOC analyst in a Year
How to be a SOC Analyst in a Year
Being in cybersecurity is a life-time commitment. It is a way of thinking; a lifestyle.
No it isn’t about tinfoil hat wearing but that is usually how we all start. We learn all of these things that can go wrong and our first instinct is to protect against all of them.
But that’s not what being in cybersecurity is about. In fact, that is the opposite of cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity enables businesses to make risky moves safely.
If you don’t take risks in business you can’t make any money. Cybersecurity is about making it so businesses can take those risks to make money in a safe(r) way.
So we put controls into place that and we monitor activity as SOC analysts so that if something is going wrong, we can intervene and stop it.
With that said, not everyone starts out with the right risk registers in their head of what to do if and when something bad happens, and these are things that we have to learn.
Hopefully by this point you’ve been learning IT skills for awhile and you know you love technology and you want to make cybersecurity a career.
Where do you start? I am about to give you a timeline of how you can learn to become a SOC analyst in just a year’s time starting from a foundation of general IT skills. Keep in mind I am not affiliated with any of these Instructor’s Udemy courses and only recommend Udemy because I’ve found it to be extremely cost effective. We price our courses to be competitive with Udemy. I have not taken any of these courses either, I have only glanced at their outlines and watched the introductory video.
Three weeks of windows and linux fundamentals
The best place to learn this is with CompTia’s Sever+.
The certification isn’t the end goal, the end goal is knowing how linux and windows servers work, virtualization, and the types of servers is all great prerequisite knowledge to have.
But if you’re going to study for it, then why not get the certification?
If you don’t have any luck getting a SOC Analyst job by the time you’re finished, you’d be able to pivot in from a help desk role with ease.
I really liked this course when browsing through them:
https://www.udemy.com/course/server-administration-fundamentals-server-sk0-004/
Three weeks of PowerShell
Next you are going to want to spend three weeks getting familiar with PowerShell.
You don’t need to be able to write PowerShell scripts from scratch, but you will need to know how it works, where its used, how to find PowerShell scripts, and be able to read them to know what malicious may look like.
This Udemy course is highly rated and it looks like this curriculum will be great for you.
https://www.udemy.com/course/windows-powershell-training
Three weeks of Bash scripting
Bash is what Linux uses and you need to be familiar with it because you’ll be using it for the rest of your career. You’ll need to be able to navigate the linux command line.
I have found this Udemy course to be highly rated and the curriculum looks really good.
https://www.udemy.com/course/bash-scripting
Eight weeks of networking fundamentals
Linux+ is your best resource for learning networking fundamentals. A solid networking background is mandatory.
You will also want to pair this with spending time on subnetting.
Here you will want to get the certification as having a Network+ certification can actually help you in your job hunting.
I’ve found Jason Dion’s courses to be really good and he has one for Network+
https://www.udemy.com/course/comptia-network-009
Eight Weeks of Python Programming
Next you want to get familiar with python programming. By now you already have familiarity with scripting with PowerShell and Bash so it shouldn’t take you very long to pick up python.
Python is by far the most common language used today and you will find it handy throughout your career.
The best class for this is one of the most popular courses in all of Udemy:
https://www.udemy.com/course/complete-python-bootcamp
Eight Weeks of Cybersecurity Fundamentals
Now lets talk about cybersecurity.
But before diving into CompTia’s Security+ take this class from Cyber NOW Education called SOC Analyst NOW!
SOC Analyst NOW covers all the prerequisite knowledge needed to become a SOC Analyst, scratching the surface of it all, so it would be good to take this class first when you begin this journey to understand where you need to continue your studies.
Next you need to get your Security+ certification. This is one certification where you need to have passed the test and obtained the certification. You should be able to do both in eight weeks.
Three Weeks of Cloud Fundamentals
To give you a competitive edge in becoming a SOC analyst, you’re going to watch to learn the cloud fundamentals. The best place to do this is this short course from Cyber NOW Education, Cloud Security NOW!
Then, it would behoove you to think about your Cloud Security Alliance, Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) certification. You could do both in two the three weeks.
Twelve Weeks of FREE Projects, Projects, Projects
Offsec CTF’s
Blue Team CTF’s
SIEM & System Administration
Cryptography and Malware
Cloud
- 30-Minute Honeypot Project
- Microsoft Azure Labs
- Azure Cybersecurity Labs (free with subscription or $9.99)
4 Weeks off for breaks =)
Tyler Wall is the founder of Cyber NOW Education. He holds bills for a Master of Science from Purdue University, and also CISSP, CCSK, CFSR, CEH, Sec+, Net+, A+ certifications. He mastered the SOC after having held every position from analyst to architect and is the author of three books, 100+ professional articles, four online courses, and regularly holds webinars for new cybersecurity talent.
You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
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Check out my latest book Jump-start Your SOC Analyst Career: A Roadmap to Cybersecurity Success published June 1st, 2024 and winner of the 2024 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards.
