Top cybersecurity certifications to consider for your IT career

Pierluigi Paganini October 11, 2019

With the right cybersecurity certifications, you can attain your goals seamlessly and in a fast way and speed up your career.

Cyber attacks are making headlines almost every day in today’s era. The attacks have increased both in number and complexity. Because of this natural demand, it is now crucial for companies and specialized firms to reinforce and invest in professionals to face a problem that technology can’t solve.

Being a professional within the field, a curious person, or even someone that wishes to work in the field, there are a lot of cybersecurity certifications you need to consider in order to improve your skills. Earning a certification in this field is an excellent way to boost your career potentials. With the right cybersecurity certifications, you can attain your goals seamlessly and in a fast way.

From my point of view, one of the ways you can make gown your career is by investing your time and money and getting a certification that will truly improve your skills, knowledge and, thus, developing a new mindset to face everyday challenges.

There are exceptional cybersecurity certifications you should check out as they can be the golden ticket to your next job role.

Certified Ethical Hacker – CEH

A Certified Ethical Hacker is a skilled professional who understands and knows how to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities in target systems and uses the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker, but in a lawful and legitimate manner to assess the security posture of a target system(s). The CEH credential certifies individuals in the specific network security discipline of Ethical Hacking from a vendor-neutral perspective.


Certified Information Security Manager – CISM

ISACA®’s Certified Information Security Manager® (CISM®) certification instantly validates your skills and expertise in information security management. It proves you can plan and institute information security programs and practices that prevent security breaches and quickly mitigate damage should a breach occur. That’s why hiring managers and clients look for it and many businesses and government agencies require it.


CompTIA Security+

CompTIA Security+ is the first security certification IT professionals should earn. This certification establishes the core knowledge required by any cybersecurity role and provides a springboard to intermediate-level cybersecurity jobs. Security+ incorporates best practices in hands-on trouble-shooting to ensure security professionals have practical security problem-solving skills. Cybersecurity professionals with Security+ know how to address security incidents – not just identify them.


SANS GIAC Security Essentials – GSEC

The GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) certification validates a practitioner’s knowledge of information security beyond simple terminology and concepts. GSEC certification holders are demonstrating that they are qualified for hands-on IT systems roles with respect to security tasks.


Offensive Security Certified Professional – OSCP

The OSCP examination consists of a virtual network containing targets of varying configurations and operating systems. At the start of the exam, the student receives the exam and connectivity instructions for an isolated exam network that they have no prior knowledge or exposure to. The successful examinee will demonstrate their ability to research the network (information gathering), identify any vulnerabilities and successfully execute attacks. This often includes modifying exploit code with the goal to compromise the systems and gain administrative access.

The candidate is expected to submit a comprehensive penetration test report, containing in-depth notes and screenshots detailing their findings. Points are awarded for each compromised host, based on their difficulty and level of access obtained.


Certified Cloud Security Professional – CCSP

Earning the globally recognized CCSP cloud security certification is a proven way to build your career and better secure critical assets in the cloud.

The CCSP shows you have the advanced technical skills and knowledge to design, manage and secure data, applications, and infrastructure in the cloud using best practices, policies and procedures established by the cybersecurity experts at (ISC)².

Certified Information Systems Security Professional – CISSP

The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification is considered the gold standard in the field of information security. This CISSP certification training course is aligned with (ISC)² CBK 2018 requirements and will train you to become an information assurance professional who defines all aspects of IT security, including architecture, design, management, and controls. Most IT security positions require or prefer a CISSP certification, so get started with your CISSP training today.

Cybersecurity, like many other areas of IT, has grown to the point where certifications have been proliferating in recent years. As in other areas in IT, security is crucial and certifications can help you verify your high-end skill set.

About the Author

cybersecurity certifications

Pedro Tavares is a cybersecurity professional and a founding member and Pentester of CSIRT.UBI and the founder of seguranca-informatica.pt.

In recent years he has invested in the field of information security, exploring and analyzing a wide range of topics, such as pentesting (Kali Linux), malware, hacking, cybersecurity, IoT and security in computer networks.  He is also a Freelance Writer.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – cybersecurity certifications)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]



you might also like

leave a comment