How important is coding to cybersecurity work?
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Early in career not very, gets more important as you move up or you will hit a ceiling imo. Coding language i would recommend would be python. Also wouldn’t hurt to know how to use power shell.
Also depends on what you’re in doing in cyber
Not very unless you’re doing cybersecurity work that involves coding. Then it’s vital.
Cyber itself doesn’t really require any coding. For example, things like incident response, vulnerability management, penetration testing, grc, identity and access management don’t really require coding to do the job.
However, the part that may require coding is automating processes to help supplement the above activities.
Focus on analysis/statistics type of coding like excel/pbi/python helps with log analysis and dashboarding in meaningful ways
Spend a weekend each doing exercises with python, Excel, grep/awk and you'll have a very flexible foundation
Thanks for the helpful responses!
There is a difference between knowing how to code and being a programmer. In cyber you don’t have to be Lebron James but you should at least know how to play basketball.
It depends on the area of cyber you want to work in (sorry for the obvious part).
For things like risk and regulations, standards, auditing you wont need to code.
If you work in app sec it helps if you are only looking at pipeline scans but most times that should be pushed back to developers.
SOC and ops it really helps as you will need to query data sets but this is more similar to data analytics than application coding.
For all cyber roles you need data analytics skills. The ability to write the odd bit of data query really helps for all roles.
It depends on the role! Coding isn’t a must-have for every cybersecurity position, but it can be super valuable.
For example, if you’re in threat analysis, penetration testing, or malware analysis, coding skills (like Python, JavaScript, or C++) can help you automate tasks, write exploits, or reverse-engineer code. In GRC or compliance roles, you might not need to code, but understanding how systems work and some scripting basics can still give you an edge. For incident response or SOC work, knowing how to parse logs or write scripts to automate investigations is a huge plus.
So, while you don’t need to be a full-fledged developer, having some coding knowledge can open doors and make your job easier in more technical roles. It’s worth learning the basics if you’re aiming for those kinds of positions.