What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computers, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft. It spans a huge range of work: securing a company's servers, writing code that resists attack, teaching people to spot a phishing email, and responding when something has already gone wrong.

Example: three different security roles

• A SOC analyst watches live traffic and alerts for signs of an ongoing attack.
• A penetration tester is paid, with explicit written permission, to break into a system on purpose so its owner learns about the hole before a real attacker does.
• A security engineer builds the defenses the other two roles rely on.

This subject covers the foundational concepts every one of those roles builds on, before any specific tool or technique.