This is the second article in our set of #CyberSelfCare blogs to help you educate yourself, your coworkers, family, and friends about how to protect their digital presence.
In last week’s blog post, we talked about how to maintain your sanity while working from home. Working from home has a lot of challenges, but it has major benefits, too. When you work from home, your commute time is greatly reduced. Instead of driving your car, riding a train, riding a bike, or walking to the office, all you have to do is turn on your computer and start working. Anyone who has ever had a long commute can appreciate this.
For my first job, I commuted on the train to New York City from a small town in the suburbs. Every day, I spent more than 4 hours on my commute — just traveling to and from the office — and this was before the days of WiFi on public transit. Later, I switched to commuting by car, but with unpredictable traffic, it wasn’t much better. It’s not quite that bad everywhere, but anyone who works in a major metropolitan area like San Francisco, London, or Los Angeles will agree – commuting is exhausting and stressful!
One of the single biggest benefits of working remotely is spending less time traveling to and from the office. If you’re new to working from home, you might find yourself with more time in your day. How will you spend it? With that time, you can focus on things that you might not otherwise have time to do if you were still commuting. Sure, you can spend that extra time sleeping and watching reality shows, but what about setting a goal to invest some of that extra time in cybersecurity training?
In this week’s post, we’ve curated a list of educational resources you can use to learn more about cybersecurity on your own schedule.
Read Cybersecurity Blogs
You’re already reading our blog, so why not start reading a few more? In these blogs, you get immediate access to some of the best minds in cybersecurity research and threat hunting.
- Krebs on Security is written by Brian Krebs, a former Washington Post reporter and well-known cybersecurity expert.
- Schneier on Security is written by Bruce Schneier, a Harvard fellow and internationally renowned cybersecurity guru.
- Cisco Talos Blog is written by one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams in the world, made up of world-class researchers, analysts and engineers.
Listen to a Security Podcast
If you used to have a long commute, you may already listen to podcasts. Podcasts are a great way to stay up to date on a topic that interests you, and are especially good for listening when taking a walk or during a workout. There’s a podcast for everyone, and that includes people interested in security threats.
- Talos Takes — join Cisco Talos researchers and analysts as they cover everything from breaking news to the latest trends in cybersecurity.
- Beers with Talos — listen to the security experts from Talos as they dive into topics like emerging threats, hacking, and other security issues over beers. Shhh… we won’t tell anyone if you enjoy an adult beverage while you listen.
- Security Stories — enjoy an interview-based podcast full of insights from CISOs and featuring unique, strange, and often hilarious stories about leading cybersecurity efforts in an organization.
Attend a Live or On-Demand Webinar
Our security experts deliver virtual talks on a wide range of topics, with options for technical and non-technical audiences. There are plenty of live and on-demand webinars to choose from, including:
- 3 steps to secure remote workers and students
- Why ransomware remains resilient (and what to do about it)
- Sacrifice is a good little trick: defeating evasive malware
Want to listen to a webinar, but don’t have a lot of time? We have the answer for you! Our Dip in the Deep End series of mini-webinars packs a treasure trove of information into 10 short minutes. Check out some of our recent topics:
- Punycode: awareness and protection
- Abracadabra of Malwares: Obfuscation
- How cryptocurrency is changing cybersecurity
Read a Cybersecurity Book
Maybe you prefer reading a book to listening to a podcast or webinar. The Cisco Umbrella team has published a vast library of cybersecurity ebooks for you to read, and they’re short enough to read in one sitting.
- Ransomware Defense for Dummies 2nd Edition
- 7 Ways to Take Cybersecurity to New Levels
- Secure Everywhere: The Power of Integrated Internet, Endpoint, and Email Security
Complete a Cyber Ops Certification
If you have a lot of spare time and a desire to challenge yourself, consider the new Cisco Certified Cyber Ops Associate certification. This credential is designed to prepare you for associate-level job roles in a security operations center (SOC).
The program consists of a training course and exam that cover the foundational skills, processes, and knowledge you need to prevent, detect, analyze, and respond to cybersecurity incidents. At the time of writing this blog post, all Cisco certification exams can be completed online from the comfort of your home.
Even if you’re not pursuing a career in cybersecurity operations, a certification is a great option for anyone who wants to do a deeper dive into cybersecurity topics and prove their knowledge to current and future employers.
Knowledge is Power
At Cisco, we’re always learning, and our researchers are pushing the boundaries of threat research and security best practices. It’s harder than ever to keep up with the constant changes in the network security world. Spending just a few minutes per day on continuing education can make you into the trusted cybersecurity expert at your company!
