Two most important SOC analyst skills
As I sat and thought about what the two most important SOC analyst skills to have, I started to write them down and my list turned into eight items.
This is my list off the top of my head with some of the examples of free content that I have covered so far.
Cybersecurity Analysis
Operating System fundamentals & Networking fundamentals
Networking (people) & Effective Communication
Scripting (not necessarily full development)
Cloud Technologies (AWS, Azure, Terraform, Serverless)
This series:
Experience (with projects)
As I looked over this list I had to recategorize skills into just two categories. Hard technical skills and soft skills, then pick one from each category as being a SOC analyst is a delicate and equal balance of the two. In some cases hard technical skills can be trained much faster than easier than soft skills. Technical skills can be taught by reading and studying and following a clearly defined learning path, whereas learning soft skills is often trial and error over time.
Hard Technical Skills
The award for the most valuable hard technical skill award goes to networking because you can get by with not knowing how to use active directory for awhile and no employer will expect you to already know how to conduct a security analysis and both of these require a prerequisite of networking fundamentals.
Soft Skills
In the age of remote work and the duties as a SOC analyst, the most valuable soft skill award goes to reading & writing. Its a fact that a lot of us wouldn’t have lucrative jobs if English wasn’t our native language. So much of our every day consists of reading and writing emails, security analysis, writing on instant messages, text messages, LinkedIN, reading and writing everywhere all of the time.
Conclusion
As you can see fundamentally the most important thing a SOC analyst can learn is how to communicate. Whether that be computers talking to computers, or pinging your teammates on chat, you’re communicating all day long. No system can have security when it is open to talking to others and that is the breath of life into cybersecurity. The cybersecurity industry exists because computers are interconnected. Mastering the basics of communication will lead to a foundation that is truly built on cement; it doesn’t change much.
How to learn these skills
Gaining the CompTia Network+ certification is a great start in learning networking and the best way to learn reading and writing is to get a blog here on Medium, get a subscription of Grammarly, and study the changes they suggest. Also, as a practice, any word that you come across that you aren’t familiar with, don’t just ignore it… look it up! Not in the Oxford (Google) but Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster’s requirements for new words are much more strict and should be your bible. If the definition doesn’t fit the context, try that word on Urban Dictionary, but never let a sentence go by that you didn’t comprehend. Don’t breeze over it and take your time reading and writing. Its a grossly undervalued skill amongst tech nerds.
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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