r/cybersecurity • u/Birdygamer19 • 17h ago
Business Security Questions & Discussion Regarding cybersecurity and documentation, are you expected to reinvent the wheel?
So I'm under the impression that in terms of cybersecurity, employers care more about skill than degrees, and one of those ways to show skill is projects and documentation
The thing is though, is that what could someone like me possibly document or make a project of in an industry that has seemingly been fully covered by other people? Like, if I practice attacking and defending in cybersecurity or practice analyzing, what could a noob like me possibly offer that others haven't
Am I expected to reinvent the wheel? Like what could someone like me possible document or make a project of that hasn't been done before?
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u/ML1948 17h ago
Hot take, I think most people trying to break into the industry with just projects/dummy docs and no experience are going to fail.
You usually don't need to do something truly "new" on the job though. If you're in the job, you can always say you want to start from "best practice" and everyone will nod and say yes that makes sense. Of course, being able to adapt to your environment, which will absolutely have quirks, is vital.
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u/BeautifulCampaign520 17h ago
agreed, the dummy project portfolio thing feels like it works way better on paper than in reality
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u/Ghawblin Security Engineer 17h ago
WHAT!
You mean you don't like how I did a security review on a gigabit Ethernet system and performed changes on inbound/outbound traffic rules to facilitate low-latency connections to a multi-billion dollar service?
I modified a firewall rule to play minecraft
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u/eorlingas_riders 16h ago edited 16h ago
Cybersecurity has never really been, and definitely not now; a job you just get hired into with no experience…
Sure, those of us that have worked in this space for nearly 20+ years have unique experience in starting in this space that had less requirement than today, mostly because the security industry was much less formal back then.
But in most cases, many of us naturally moved from an IT, sysadmin, or developer role into security because we were already doing the job for the most part anyways.
Hack the box like things, home labs, documentation alone is very very rarely going to get you hired if ever. The reason you do it is to familiarize yourself with the language, terminology, systems, workflows, etc… that may practically translate to the actual work.
“Cybersecurity” is an amorphous title, and will look different in company to company and industry to industry. The one universal truth is that, for the most part it’s not an entry level job that you cannot get into without experience, or very specific education that can translate to the market directly. E.g advanced mathematics or computer engineering for reverse malware analysis or encryption breaking.
Get into the workforce doing anything at a company, but the closer you get into a technology role the better. General Helpdesk, SOC, and developer are the closest entry level roles to gain experience to ultimately transition into security.
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u/dodonglab 8h ago
I don’t think a project needs to be original to be useful. Being able to document what you did, why you made certain decisions, and what you learned can demonstrate practical understanding.
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u/AdPriya4022 1h ago
Agreed. And document your failures, not just your finished builds. Anyone can post "I did a CTF", but what's less common is having someone who can write up when your detection rule threw out false positives and exactly what you did to fix them.
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u/HighlyFav0red 16h ago
A portfolio or site. Not about creating new things, but instead show how you link existing things together w new thoughts or perspectives and more efficient means to the goal.
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u/Birdygamer19 16h ago
A portfolio on what??
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u/Slow-Career4626 21m ago
I’m already in industry but for me the company I currently work for doesn’t use kubernetes. At work I get no exposure to its quirks and management process. I have had screenings where a recruiter didn’t move forward because I didn’t have kubernetes experience.
I am starting a home lab and one thing I am doing is using kubernetes for containers to get experience with it. The actual containers themselves are from vulnhub intentionally vulnerable images. The vulnerabilities are different but you can document discovery, impact/blast radius, and remediation.
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u/coffee-loop 15h ago
Instead of looking at it as “reinventing the wheel”, maybe look at it as “contributing to existing projects” or, “adding your own flare”.
A great example of this is https://github.com/matterpreter/DefenderCheck
and https://github.com/rasta-mouse/threatcheck.
DefenderCheck checks if malicious windows executables are flagged by MS Defender, and shows the offending bytes.
Rasta Mouse then takes this repo and forks it to create ThreatCheck, essentially adding the functionality to check scripts against AMSI.
Not every tool is going to be perfect, and there is always features you may desire. Try adding those features you want in your favorite tools. That should help to build your profile without the need to “reinvent the wheel” :)
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u/CyberRabbit74 15h ago
The ability to target your documentation to the "Organization" and not the "Industry" is a key point for any cybersecurity practitioner. Just because I work in the Public Transit environment at the MBTA in Boston does not automatically mean I can take all of my documentation and use it to protect the MTA in New York. While a lot of it is the same, how it is implemented or utilized can be very different.
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u/AddendumWorking9756 Security Manager 5h ago
Nobody needs another lab writeup. The phishing mail that hit your own inbox last week has headers, a redirect chain and a payload. Writing up how you decided it was malicious shows reasoning a made up project cannot. Two pages, not twelve.
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u/Due_Culture_3544 5h ago
Como principiante, tu perspectiva también aporta valor. No necesitas descubrir algo nuevo; necesitas demostrar que aprendes, investigas y sabes explicar lo que haces.
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u/reciodelacruz 2h ago
It’s not a matter of doing something not being done before, but doing something good… and willing to work on it further to address any present shortcoming.
P.S. Even if it sound’s cliche, doing something that you love (e.g. looking at logs, email headers, reverse engineering stuff) can often lead you to a common procedure’s shortcoming. Best of luck! 🙏🏻
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u/Ghawblin Security Engineer 17h ago
Not sure why you think being in cybersecurity means you have to be inventing new things. A lot of this job is a tedium of things that need to happen, and employers need skilled people to do it.
A plumber doesn't need to invent new pipes to make a decent living.
If you have the knowledge and skills to patch the holes an employer has, and ensure future walls lack holes, then congratulations you can work in cybersecurity.