- Career Roadmaps
- Cyber Security

Cyber Security Roadmap

You defend systems against people paid to break them. Entry is usually a SOC analyst seat - indicative 2026 salaries
$65-90k US
- and the field rewards fundamentals over gadgets: networking, operating systems and logs before exploit tools.

By Carl Mills
- Last updated 10 July 2026
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- free personalized PDF study plan.

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Import File

Stage 1 - Foundations 4 item(s)
- Core concepts: CIA triad, authN vs authZ, common attack classes (OWASP) Critical
- Networking deeply: TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, ports - reading packet captures Critical Security is applied networking. Wireshark is your first tool.
- Operating systems both sides: Windows (AD basics) and Linux internals Critical
- Scripting: Python or PowerShell for log wrangling and automation

Stage 2 - Defender Skills 4 item(s)
- Alert triage: real vs noise, escalation judgement, writing an incident note Critical
- Identity security: MFA, conditional access,



why identity is the new perimeter Critical
- Log analysis + one SIEM (Microsoft Sentinel or Splunk): queries, detections Critical
- Threat literacy: phishing, ransomware playbooks, MITRE ATT&CK; as a map Critical

Stage 3 - Practice 4 item(s)
- Home lab: VMs, a SIEM ingesting your own logs, attack + detect exercises Critical Write up 2-3 lab exercises - these are your interview stories.
- AI-era literacy: LLM-assisted analysis + prompt injection awareness
- CTF reps (TryHackMe/HTB defensive paths) - documented progress
- Security+ (or equivalent) as the HR filter-pass

Stage 4 - Job-Ready Proof 3 item(s)
- CV/LinkedIn target "SOC Analyst" naming your SIEM + lab work Critical
- Passed a mock interview including walking through an investigation Critical
- Public lab/CTF write-ups showing your investigation process Critical

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Cyber Secur

📌 Cyber Security (Penne)
🏢 Sentido - Software Made Simple
📍 Penne