Essential Cyber Security Skills: What’s Really Needed in 2025?
Let’s be honest. Cyber security can feel like a minefield. With headlines constantly reporting data breaches, ransomware, and emerging AI-driven threats, it’s easy to assume these issues only impact large corporations. The reality? No business is too small to be a target.
At Corecom Technology Academy, we develop future ready professionals across the UK tech landscape, equipping them with hands-on, real world cyber security skills to meet today’s, and tomorrow’s, challenges.
So, what exactly do businesses and tech professionals need to focus on to stay secure in 2025? Let’s break down the essential cyber security capabilities every modern team should develop.
Why Cyber Security Matters More Than Ever
Cyber-attacks are increasing in both frequency and sophistication.
According to the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024, a third of UK businesses experienced a cyber-attack in the past year. Many of these could have been avoided through better awareness and simple preventative measures.
From ransomware and phishing scams to AI-driven social engineering and insider threats, businesses of every size and sector are vulnerable. That’s why robust, proactive cyber security is now a business-critical function. It must start early, right from the design and development phase of products and systems, which means everyone involved needs to be more cyber aware, technically informed, and trained to identify and reduce risk.
Top Cyber Security Skills for 2025
At Corecom Technology Academy, we focus on developing practical, job-ready skills that align directly with industry needs. Our curriculum is built by experts and taught through real-world scenarios using the tools that professionals use on the job. Whether you’re building a cyber team or upskilling your existing workforce, we can tailor our training to meet your needs.
Employee Education & Awareness
Humans continue to be a common point of entry for attackers. Social engineering, phishing, and weak password practices remain among the most exploited vulnerabilities.
At CTA, we embed cyber awareness training across our programmes, teaching your team how to recognise, prevent, and respond to threats. This includes phishing detection, password hygiene, secure browsing practices, and the importance of reporting incidents early. Awareness is the first, and often most critical, line of defence.
Grounding in Technology
Before diving into advanced cyber skills, professionals need a solid understanding of how technology works. This includes foundational knowledge in:
Networking (e.g. TCP/IP, firewalls, routing, DNS)
Operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS)
System architecture and software development basics
Problem-solving and critical thinking are also essential, enabling individuals to investigate issues, assess risks, and develop secure solutions. Programming experience (e.g. Python, PowerShell, Bash) helps with automation, scripting, and understanding how attackers exploit systems.
Threat Intelligence
Modern cybersecurity relies on proactive threat detection. Threat Intelligence is the process of collecting, analysing, and acting on data about current and emerging threats. It allows organisations to identify risks early, before they turn into incidents.
At CTA, our training covers techniques for gathering intelligence from multiple sources: internal logs, network traffic, dark web forums, and global threat feeds. Learners use this data to anticipate and respond to risks, making threat intelligence a key part of “shifting security left” in the development lifecycle.
Cloud Security
With more services hosted in the cloud than ever before, cloud security is now non - negotiable. Professionals need to understand:
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Encryption methods
Monitoring and threat detection tools
Compliance with standards like ISO 27001 and GDPR
At CTA, we give learners hands-on experience across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, training them to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in real-world cloud environments, and design resilient, secure architectures.
AI and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are changing the cyber landscape - on both sides of the fight.
Defensively, AI/ML helps detect threats faster, identify anomalies, and automate incident responses. Offensively, attackers are using the same technologies to craft AI - generated phishing attacks, develop self-adapting malware, and exploit vulnerabilities at scale.
Professionals need to understand both how to defend against AI, powered threats and how to use AI to strengthen security. At CTA, we bridge the gap between cyber security and machine learning, training learners in how to apply ML tools ethically and securely while staying ahead of new attack vectors like adversarial ML, data poisoning, and model inversion.
Pen Testing & Ethical Hacking
Ethical hacking is all about thinking like an attacker - but acting responsibly. To be effective, pen testers need a deep understanding of systems and networks, including how they can be exploited. Skills required include:
Indepth knowledge of operating systems, databases, and web infrastructure
Familiarity with common vulnerabilities (e.g. SQL injection, XSS, buffer overflows)
Use of tools like Metasploit, Nmap, Wireshark, Burp Suite, and Kali Linux
Understanding of frameworks like the OWASP Top 10 and MITRE ATT&CK
Scripting and automation using languages like Python or Bash
At CTA, learners get hands-on with tools and methodologies used in the field, helping them test and secure real environments ethically and effectively.
Whether you’re looking to build a dedicated cyber team, support your development team with security first thinking, or refresh your team’s awareness, our programmes are designed to deliver confident, project ready professionals into your organisation.
Get in touch to learn more about our Recruit, Train, Deploy services or book an initial consultation with our team today.