Complete Cybersecurity Engineer Roadmap

Phase 1: Foundation (3-6 months)

Computer Fundamentals

• Operating Systems
  • Windows architecture and internals
  • Linux/Unix systems and file structure
  • macOS basics
• Process management
• File systems and permissions
• System calls and APIs

Networking Basics

• OSI and TCP/IP models
• IP addressing and subnetting
• IPv4 vs IPv6
• DNS and DHCP
• NAT and port forwarding
• Network protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH, SMTP)
• Routing and switching basics

Programming for Security

• Python (primary language for security)
• Bash/Shell scripting
• PowerShell
• Basic C/C++ (for understanding exploits)
• Regular expressions
• APIs and automation

Information Security Basics

• CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
• Authentication vs Authorization
• Security principles and best practices
• Threat landscape overview
• Security frameworks introduction
• Risk management basics

Phase 2: Core Security Knowledge (6-12 months)

Cryptography

Symmetric Encryption

• DES, 3DES
• AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
• Block cipher modes (ECB, CBC, CTR, GCM)
• Stream ciphers

Asymmetric Encryption

• RSA
• Diffie-Hellman key exchange
• Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

Hashing Algorithms

• MD5 (broken, historical)
• SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-3
• HMAC
• Password hashing (bcrypt, scrypt, Argon2)

Digital Signatures and Certificates

• X.509 certificates
• Certificate Authorities
• SSL/TLS protocols
• Certificate pinning

Cryptographic Attacks

• Brute force attacks
• Rainbow tables
• Birthday attacks
• Man-in-the-middle attacks
• Side-channel attacks

Network Security

Network Defense

• Firewalls (stateful, stateless, next-gen)
• IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems)
• VPNs (site-to-site, remote access)
• DMZ architecture
• Network segmentation
• Air-gapping

Network Attacks

• ARP spoofing
• DNS spoofing/poisoning
• MITM attacks
• Port scanning and enumeration
• DDoS attacks
• Session hijacking
• Packet sniffing

Wireless Security

• WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA3
• Wireless attack vectors
• Rogue access points
• Evil twin attacks
• Bluetooth security

Web Application Security

OWASP Top 10

• Injection attacks (SQL, NoSQL, Command, LDAP)
• Broken authentication
• Sensitive data exposure
• XML External Entities (XXE)
• Broken access control
• Security misconfiguration
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Insecure deserialization
• Using components with known vulnerabilities
• Insufficient logging & monitoring

Web Security Concepts

• Same-Origin Policy
• CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing)
• CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)
• Clickjacking
• HTTP security headers
• Cookie security
• Session management
• Input validation and sanitization

API Security

• REST API vulnerabilities
• OAuth and OpenID vulnerabilities
• JWT attacks
• API rate limiting
• GraphQL security

Phase 3: Offensive Security (6-9 months)

Penetration Testing

Information Gathering (Reconnaissance)

• Passive reconnaissance
• Active reconnaissance
• OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)
• Footprinting and fingerprinting
• Social engineering reconnaissance

Scanning and Enumeration

• Port scanning techniques
• Service enumeration
• Vulnerability scanning
• Network mapping
• Banner grabbing

Exploitation

• Exploit development basics
• Metasploit Framework
• Exploiting known vulnerabilities
• Buffer overflow attacks
• Privilege escalation (Windows & Linux)
• Post-exploitation techniques
• Lateral movement
• Persistence mechanisms

Web Application Penetration Testing

• Manual testing techniques
• Automated scanning
• Authentication testing
• Authorization testing
• Business logic testing
• Input validation testing

Ethical Hacking Techniques

• Password cracking
• Social engineering attacks
• Phishing campaigns
• Physical security testing
• Wireless penetration testing
• Mobile application testing
• Cloud security testing

Malware Analysis

Static Analysis

• File format analysis
• String extraction
• Disassembly
• PE file structure
• Signature detection

Dynamic Analysis

• Sandboxing
• Behavioral analysis
• Network traffic analysis
• System monitoring
• API call monitoring

Malware Types

• Viruses and worms
• Trojans and backdoors
• Ransomware
• Rootkits
• Spyware and adware
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

Phase 4: Defensive Security (6-9 months)

Security Operations Center (SOC)

Monitoring and Detection

• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
• Log analysis and correlation
• Alert triage
• Threat hunting
• Anomaly detection
• Behavioral analytics

Incident Response

• Incident response lifecycle (NIST, SANS)
• Detection and analysis
• Containment strategies
• Eradication and recovery
• Post-incident activities

Forensic Evidence Handling

• Chain of custody

Threat Intelligence

• IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)
• TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, Procedures)
• Threat actor profiling
• MITRE ATT&CK framework
• Threat feeds and sharing
• Cyber Kill Chain

Digital Forensics

Computer Forensics

• Disk imaging and acquisition
• File system forensics (NTFS, ext4, HFS+)
• Registry analysis (Windows)
• Timeline analysis
• File carving and recovery
• Anti-forensics techniques

Network Forensics

• Packet capture analysis
• Network flow analysis
• Protocol analysis
• Artifact reconstruction

Memory Forensics

• Memory acquisition
• Process analysis
• Malware detection in memory
• Volatile data extraction

Mobile Forensics

• iOS forensics
• Android forensics
• App data extraction
• Cloud backup analysis

Security Architecture

Secure Design Principles

• Defense in depth
• Least privilege
• Zero trust architecture
• Fail secure
• Separation of duties
• Security by design

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

• Authentication mechanisms (MFA, SSO, biometrics)
• Authorization models (RBAC, ABAC, MAC, DAC)
• Directory services (Active Directory, LDAP)
• Privileged access management (PAM)
• Identity federation

Cloud Security

• AWS security services
• Azure security services
• GCP security services
• Shared responsibility model
• Cloud-native security tools
• Container security (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Serverless security

Phase 5: Advanced Specializations (Ongoing)

Advanced Penetration Testing

• Advanced exploitation techniques
• Zero-day research
• Exploit development
• Fuzzing and vulnerability discovery
• Reverse engineering
• Red team operations
• Purple teaming

Advanced Threat Hunting

• Advanced persistent threat detection
• Behavioral analytics
• Machine learning for threat detection
• Deception technology (honeypots)
• Threat modeling

Compliance and Governance

Frameworks and Standards

• ISO 27001/27002
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• CIS Controls
• PCI DSS
• HIPAA
• GDPR
• SOC 2

Risk Management

• Risk assessment methodologies
• Quantitative vs qualitative risk analysis
• Risk mitigation strategies
• Business continuity planning
• Disaster recovery planning

Security Research

• Bug bounty hunting
• CVE process
• Responsible disclosure
• Security advisory writing
• Conference presentations