To get started in a Cybersecurity career, one should have skills in coding languages for cybersecurity. Here in this article, we’ll see which programming language is best for cybersecurity.
Although it is not necessary to be fluent in every programming language, but some knowledge on it will help you to become successful in the long run. Programming languages also helps in defending against hacking and troubleshoot the issues.
Since applications are built on one or a combination of multiple programming languages, having the skill will help you efficiently solve issues.
If you’re wondering if cybersecurity is a good career choice, this guide will be helpful.
Let’s check out the best programming languages for cybersecurity that helps to take your career to the next level.
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Which Programming Language is Best for Cybersecurity?
Do you need programming skills to become a cybersecurity professional? Yes, to become a successful cybersecurity professional you do need to have enough coding skills.
Below are the 7 best programming languages for cybersecurity.
1. HTML
You may think that HTML is not the most important programming languages for cybersecurity. But it is.
HTML is a markup language used in almost all websites across the globe. Hence, it is essential to learn HTML as a basic language to get started in a cybersecurity career.
HTML follows simple easy to remember syntax and very easy to learn in a few days. Some of the simple attacks used by hackers are by injecting HTML code into web pages for cross-site scripting attacks.
Another common attack faced by cybersecurity engineers is content spoofing by hackers. This leads to damaging the website’s reputation and provide a bad user experience to the visitors/users. In the worst case, hackers may steal the username and passwords from the website.
If you learn HTML language, you can also get a job as in web development or a front-end developer. And you will be part of mitigating the content spoofing and cross-site scripting.
2. C
C is a language that is popular for long as we were in high school or maybe from earlier. C programming language is also important for a cybersecurity professional. It helps to find vulnerabilities and perform reverse-engineering.
With a few weeks of practice course, one can learn it effortlessly. It is used to write low-level code. Programmers take extra steps to ensure their code lacks vulnerabilities while writing the code. However, hackers will use it to find vulnerabilities.
You can use Lint software to find errors, bugs, or any time of flaws. Hence, you should use this software to scan your code after writing programs.
Learning C programming will help you to kick start your career as a cybersecurity defense analyst. Here you will learn various methods to mitigate security breaches and investigate the vulnerabilities. Hence C is one of the best coding languages for cybersecurity.
C for Everyone by Coursera is a great course to start learning C. This will your first step for a cybersecurity career.
3. C++
Compared to C, C++ is an improved version of the programming language C. However C++ is still unique with additional features that lack in C language. For example, C++ supports classes and objects.
Many organizations and hiring managers prefer candidates with a C++ skill set or knowledge of both C and C++. By learning C++, you can develop applications for both PC and mobiles.
As a cybersecurity professional, you can use the popular security tool, Flawfinder to find any vulnerabilities in C/C++. Once the scan is run, you will get a report highlighting the risks with severity. By analyzing this report, you can then take the necessary action to mitigate the hacks and risks.
A combination of C and C++ language in your resume will put you one step ahead of others. Some of the best courses to learn C++ are listed here.
4. Javascript
Javascript is one of the best programming languages to learn for cybersecurity. Hackers use it to perform cross-site scripting, steal cookies, and manipulate event handlers.
Most of the applications use NodeJS, ReactJS, and jQuery and it is the core technology that powers the Internet. Since Javascript is a widely used language to build modern applications, it is the best source to target for hackers.
While javascript improves the user experience and functionality of the website, it can produce malicious functionality to visitors. Hence the knowledge of Javascript will enable you to become a successful cybersecurity engineer.
If you have learned Javascript, you can prevent JavaScript-based attacks and mitigate the cross-site scripting attempts. We recommend you to take the below course from Coursera to learn Javascript, jQuery, and JSON.
5. Python
Python is one of my favorite programming languages because of its simplicity and reliability. Python is very easy to learn in a few weeks because the syntax followed in Python is straightforward.
Also, it supports various third-party library that has a use case in Machine Learning, AI, Data Science, and more.
It is increasingly becoming the favorite language of cybersecurity professionals as it is beginning to gain traction. However, compared to C/C++, Python is a high-level language and it may not bestow visibility to hardware resources.
By learning Python for cybersecurity, you will have an edge in your career and always be ready with your skills to reduce the risks of hacks. Because it equips you to easily identify or finding vulnerabilities and fix it.
After learning Python (higher level language), you can search for SOC support specialist jobs. Here you will build tools and write scripts that will defend from hackers and cyber attacks. You can investigate the root cause by checking the logs.
We’ve listed the best course to learn Python online, pick any course from the list to get started. Python also helps in software development.
6. PHP
PHP is one of the server-side programming languages used to build websites. PHP is very essential to learn if you want to protect websites from getting hacked.
Every company has a website, hence it is very crucial to protect the websites. In case of any malicious code found in your site, Security Analyst has to perform malware analysis to remove it.
By learning PHP you can easily fend off intruders. You can use the popular security tool RIPS to perform security analysis for PHP applications. By combining PHP and Javascript you can build robust and secure web applications. This prevents common attacks to your applications.
From the security point of view, you should have enough practice to write server-side code to your application. By having such a skillset you will be able to excel as both PHP developer and cybersecurity engineer.
Take the course on building web applications using PHP to start learning PHP.
7. SQL
SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is used in all the applications to efficiently manage the data in Databases. We’ve listed some of the best SQL languages to learn online.
By using SQL in any of the application, the data storage and retrieval is almost effortless. Hence it is widely used across the globe. One of the common SQL hacks is SQL injection.
SQL injection attacks will exploit SQL vulnerabilities and inject malicious code. One of them might be redirection. Visiting the affected site will redirect to spam websites to steal data.
Learning SQL is essential and critical in becoming a cybersecurity professional. It also helps in web development and system administration.
SQL is must learn programming languages for cyber security.
Summary: Best Programming Languages for Cybersecurity
We hope this tutorial was helpful in understanding the best programming languages for cybersecurity. Every language has its own purpose and serves it accordingly.
Every cybersecurity professional should learn one of the programming languages to have a bright career future. It also helps you to secure the environment in the cloud computing platform.
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