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Strengthening Defence with a Skills Matrix in Cybersecurity

Boost the performance of your cybersecurity teams by fostering skills growth and leadership

Why a Skills Matrix is crucial for the ​Cybersecurity sector

A skills matrix is crucial in the cybersecurity sector as it ensures teams have the right expertise to tackle evolving threats.  By clearly mapping skills against required tasks, it helps identify gaps, ensuring no vulnerabilities are overlooked.  This leads to a more effective, responsive defence strategy.

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Vulnerability Management

A skills matrix helps you to ​​measures the capacity to recognise, report, and remediate system vulnerabilities, ensuring timely patching and proactive security measures.

Network Security Protocols

With a skills matrix you can ​evaluates knowledge of network defence strategies, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to ensure the infrastructure is fortified against attacks.

Cloud Security & Data Protection

A skills matrix helps you to​assesses understanding of securing cloud environments and data encryption methods, ensuring the safety of sensitive information across distributed systems.

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Compliance & Regulatory

With a skills matrix you can ensures team members are knowledgeable about industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, ensuring legal and security compliance in organisational practices.

In the world of ​cybersecurity, ​a skills matrix supports better decision-making in recruitment and training.  It allows organisations to invest in the right areas, upskill staff, and ensure the team stays ahead of emerging cyber risks, ultimately strengthening the organisation's security posture.

A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC  Download The Skill Matrix

Benefits of a Skills Matrix in the ​Cybersecurity Sector

A cybersecurity skills matrix helps organisations identify and address gaps in their security team’s expertise.  By mapping employees' skills to specific cybersecurity roles and tasks, it ensures the right people are assigned to the right areas, improving overall security posture.  It also highlights where training is needed, fostering career growth and development.

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Enhanced Threat Detection

Equips teams with the ability to identify potential threats in real-time, reducing response times and improving overall incident handling.

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Strengthened Network Security

Ensures the team has the skills to implement and manage effective network security protocols, reducing the risk of unauthorised access or breaches.

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Effective Vulnerability Management

Provides insights into the team’s capacity to proactively address system vulnerabilities, minimising the chances of exploitations.

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Robust Cloud Defence

Ensures the team is adept at securing cloud-based assets and safeguarding sensitive data, improving resilience against cloud-based attacks.

Improved Incident Response Efficiency

Ensures staff are prepared to respond swiftly and effectively to breaches, reducing damage and recovery time.

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Compliance with Security Regulations

Tracks the team’s ability to maintain compliance with legal standards, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties and ensuring ethical practices.

As threats and technology shift quickly, a skills matrix keeps your team agile and future-ready.  It allows teams to prioritise their efforts, ensuring that critical cybersecurity threats are handled by those with the most relevant skills.  It encourages a proactive approach to skills enhancement, enabling your team to confidently address security issues.

A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC  Download The Skill Matrix

Building a resilient security team: A visual approach

Maximise your team’s potential by clearly mapping out their cybersecurity strengths and development areas.

Conduct a Skills Assessment

Begin by reviewing the existing skill levels of your team in areas such as threat detection, incident response, and network defence.

Identify Critical Gaps

Compare the team’s current expertise with the requirements of today’s cybersecurity landscape, highlighting areas where further development is needed.

Design Training Programmes

Create focused training initiatives aimed at improving skills in cloud security, vulnerability management, and compliance with regulatory standards.

Preparing your Security Team for the Future

Equips your team to tackle future challenges by aligning skills with emerging cybersecurity trends and technologies.

Hands-On Learning

Introduce practical exercises, such as simulated cyberattacks or red team drills, to ensure the team can apply their skills in real-world scenarios.

Track Skills Development

Regularly monitor progress in skill acquisition, ensuring that team improvements directly enhance the organisation’s overall security posture.

Keep the Matrix Updated

Continuously review and update the skills matrix to reflect new cyber threats, technologies, and compliance standards, ensuring the team stays prepared.

A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC  Download The Skill Matrix

Core Cybersecurity skills to build your skills matrix

Here’s a collection of essential cybersecurity skills to start your matrix.  Customise the matrix to suit your team’s specific needs.  For tailored guidance, more than 100 skills matrix solutions have been delivered by experts, ensuring that support is readily available when required.

Example ​Cybersecurity Skills
Penetration Tester (Ethical Hacker)
OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) Digital forensics and zero-day exploit analysis XML external entity (XXE) injection
Penetration testing (web applications and networks)
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) File inclusion vulnerabilities (LFI, RFI)
Conducting social engineering attacks Honeypot deployment and monitoring John the Ripper for password cracking
Red, purple and blue teaming Vulnerability reporting and documentation Nessus vulnerability scanner usage
SSL/TLS security testing Wireless penetration testing (WEP, WPA/WPA2) Using OpenVAS for vulnerability scanning
Security misconfiguration exploitation Content management system (CMS) security testing Using Burp Suite for web app testing
SQL injection and brute force attacks SCADA system security testing Browser, websocket and OAuth security testing
Data encryption/decryption testing Exploiting insecure deserialization Deepfakes detection and mitigation
DNS and Session hijacking Scripting in Python and Bash for testing automation SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) security
Man-in-the-middle and cryptographic attacks Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks Data integrity monitoring (AI/ML systems)

In cybersecurity, analysing the necessary skills is crucial for protecting against and responding to incidents effectively.  Aligning these skills with strategic goals enables your team to address both current and future security challenges.  To support this, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the top 100 cybersecurity skills in an easily accessible file.  Furthermore, consider reviewing these five key resources: relevant job descriptions, up-to-date cybersecurity trend reports, professional cybersecurity communities, training and certification outlines, and insights from performance assessments.  These tools can offer valuable perspectives on evolving skill demands in the cybersecurity sector.

A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC  Download The TOP 100 Current and 
50 Emerging ​Cybersecurity SKILLS
A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC  Download The Skill Matrix

Not Ready to Download the Advanced Skills Matrix Yet?

Don't worry! We've created a completely free matrix for you to use - no email, no credit card, just good old free of charge. This matrix includes a basic rating system of 1-4 and the ability to add 10 skills/capabilities and 5 employees for your team or project. It's a great way to rapidly visualize your team's capability as a heat map.

free skills matrix template for cybersecurity team assessment

Choose your download option.

You won't be asked for any information.  These are completely free Microsoft Excel files that we have created as a proof of concept for our skills matrix.  Enjoy!  Please remember if you like what you see, then please check out the Advanced Skills Matrix here

A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC ​Download the Demo Team Matrix (shown above) A3D8jcllZsKiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC ​​Download a Blank Version to start fresh
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