Is Programming important for Cybersecurity?

This is one of the questions that always ends up on top of the most frequent questions by beginners in Cybersec.

There are generally two answers for this and I want to share them with you.

A formal knowledge of Programming is not needed, but an extensive one is.

Having an extensive knowledge about various programming languages and frameworks allows you to understand how something might be implemented in the program and how you can exploit it to gain access.

Learn the basics of every other language [ depending on what field you are working in, a pentester will be better learning Python, C and Golang while an web appsec tester would be better learning HTML, PHP and every language related to web ] , you do not need to go really deep, just enough that you can read the code and fathom what exactly going on.

You need broad knowledge in a particular language.

This one is actually for conditions when you want to become a malware developer or an Exploit developer. Both in the cases you need, C and C++. On top of that I recommend learning assembly as well to a good enough level.

The first one is for Pentesters, Red Teamers, Forensic Investigators who are there to exploit the vulnerabilities and gain access either to the enterprise or as for a forensic investigator, a criminal.

The second one is for the people who wants to build security tools and everything that can lead their offensive operations even further.

Now you are free to choose your path of learning programming.