Top 12 Security Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's digital age, cybersecurity worries gnaw at every organization, and people who can defend systems with skill and speed rise to the top of hiring lists. Below are a dozen core security skills that make a resume crackle—practical, current, and ready for real threats that won’t sit still.

Security Skills

1. Python
2. Wireshark
3. Nessus
4. Snort
5. Splunk
6. Metasploit
7. Nmap
8. Kali Linux
9. Burp Suite
10. PowerShell
11. AWS Security
12. Azure Security

1. Python

Python is a readable, adaptable programming language that shows up everywhere in security: custom tooling, automation, log wrangling, malware analysis, data parsing—you name it.

Why It's Important

With rich libraries, quick prototyping, and strong ecosystem support, Python lets defenders detect, validate, and remediate faster. Build the tool you need when nothing off the shelf fits.

How to Improve Python Skills

Sharpen both code and security posture. A few punchy moves:

1. Static analysis: Run Bandit and Ruff to catch risky patterns early.

2. Dependency hygiene: Scan dependencies with Safety or pip-audit; pin versions; track SBOMs.

3. Secure coding habits: Input validation, parameterized queries, safe deserialization, least privilege, secure defaults.

4. Patch cadence: Keep Python, virtualenvs, and packages current.

5. Isolation: Use venv or pipx; separate dev, test, prod.

6. Secrets and config: Keep secrets out of code; use environment variables or a vault; rotate keys.

7. Transport and storage protection: Prefer HTTPS; use well-vetted crypto libraries for encrypting data in transit and at rest.

8. Errors and logs: Don’t leak sensitive data in exceptions; log safely with context.

9. AuthZ/AuthN: Rely on frameworks’ built-ins; enforce robust session and access controls.

Build muscle memory: small scripts daily, code reviews weekly, threat modeling when designs change.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

2. Wireshark

Wireshark captures and dissects network packets in real time. When packets lie, it shows you the truth—headers, payloads, weirdness at the byte level.

Why It's Important

It reveals what’s actually happening on the wire, so you can spot misconfigurations, data exfiltration, C2 chatter, or a misbehaving client before it becomes a headline.

How to Improve Wireshark Skills

Make it sing with protocol knowledge and good habits:

1. Stay current: Use a recent build to decode TLS 1.3, HTTP/2/3, WPA3, QUIC.

2. Decrypt when appropriate: Use key log files for TLS where you control endpoints; capture full WPA handshakes when permitted.

3. Custom dissectors: For odd or proprietary protocols, write Lua or compiled dissectors to illuminate the payload.

4. Profiles and coloring rules: Create profiles for IR, VoIP, ICS, or cloud traffic; color by suspicion to skim faster.

5. Integrations: Pair with Zeek logs or IDS alerts to pivot from event to packet quickly.

6. Filter mastery: Build surgical display filters; bookmark them; avoid drowning in noise.

Keep a capture playbook: where to tap, what to filter, which secrets you can safely use for decryption, and when to stop.

How to Display Wireshark Skills on Your Resume

3. Nessus

Nessus is a staple vulnerability scanner that inventories assets, checks configurations, and flags weaknesses across systems and networks.

Why It's Important

It surfaces exploitable issues quickly, so teams can prioritize fixes before attackers do. Breadth, depth, and clear reporting make it a workhorse.

How to Improve Nessus Skills

Turn dials with intent:

1. Update engines and plugins: Fresh signatures catch fresh flaws.

2. Use authenticated scans: Cred-based assessments reveal misconfigs and missing patches invisible to unauth scans.

3. Tailor policies: Different stacks, different checks. Segment by OS, app tier, network zone.

4. Compliance and benchmarks: Map scans to CIS, STIG, or internal baselines to prove control drift—or lack thereof.

5. Noise control: Suppress known acceptable risks; tune for fewer false positives and clearer signals.

6. Continuous cadence: Scheduled scans, differential reporting, and alerting for high-risk deltas.

7. Prioritization: Combine CVSS, exploitability, business criticality, and exposure to decide what gets fixed first.

How to Display Nessus Skills on Your Resume

4. Snort

Snort is a widely used open-source IDS/IPS that inspects traffic and fires alerts using signatures, preprocessors, and detection logic. Snort 3 brings performance and flexibility upgrades over the classic engine.

Why It's Important

It blocks or flags known-bad patterns and suspicious behavior at wire speed, helping teams catch intrusions early and investigate with context.

How to Improve Snort Skills

Precision beats volume:

1. Rule hygiene: Keep rulesets fresh; retire noisy signatures; prefer high-fidelity sources.

2. Environment tuning: Align variables, networks, and preprocessors to your topology. Enable portscan and HTTP normalization where it matters.

3. Automate rule updates: Use tools to pull, categorize, and disable rules systematically; version control your changes.

4. Performance: Right-size DAQ/packet capture, pin CPU cores, and use AF_PACKET or PF_RING where available.

5. HA and scale: Deploy sensors close to traffic of interest; layer load balancers; fail over cleanly.

6. Triage practice: Review alerts routinely; measure false positive rates; iterate rules for clarity.

7. Telemetry fusion: Enrich with threat intel and send events to your SIEM for correlation.

How to Display Snort Skills on Your Resume

5. Splunk

Splunk ingests, indexes, and searches machine data at scale. For security teams, it underpins detections, investigations, dashboards, and incident response.

Why It's Important

When logs scatter across hosts and clouds, Splunk pulls threads together. It shortens time-to-detect and time-to-know, especially with well-modeled data and crisp searches.

How to Improve Splunk Skills

Make data work harder:

1. Data quality: Normalize with CIM or your own schema; tag, extract fields, and enrich with asset and identity context.

2. Search discipline: Use efficient SPL, summary indexing, and data model acceleration where it pays off.

3. Risk-based alerting: Aggregate weak signals into meaningful, higher-confidence alerts to cut noise.

4. Dashboards with intent: Build views for SOC triage, exec KPIs, and control health—distinct audiences, distinct metrics.

5. App ecosystem: Install vetted add-ons for key data sources and security use cases.

6. Guard the ingest: Rate-limit, parse at the edge, and drop junk before it costs you.

How to Display Splunk Skills on Your Resume

6. Metasploit

Metasploit is a framework for developing and executing exploits, validating controls, and demonstrating impact during penetration tests.

Why It's Important

It helps you safely verify that vulnerabilities are truly exploitable, so remediation gets the urgency and proof it deserves.

How to Improve Metasploit Skills

Keep it sharp and responsible:

1. Update often: New modules, payloads, and fixes land frequently.

2. Module craftsmanship: Write clean, documented modules; follow secure coding practices.

3. Opsec and safety: Use staging carefully, throttle payloads, and log everything; test in labs first.

4. Auxiliary power: Don’t sleep on auxiliary scanners, post-exploitation, and credential gathering modules.

5. Integrations: Feed results into your testing notes, ticketing, and reporting workflows for traceability.

How to Display Metasploit Skills on Your Resume

7. Nmap

Nmap maps networks by probing hosts and services, then reports what’s open, what’s speaking, and often what it’s running.

Why It's Important

Visibility first: find shadow systems, risky exposures, and misconfigurations. Everything else follows.

How to Improve Nmap Skills

Scan smarter, not just harder:

1. Precision flags: Version detection (-sV), OS detection (-O), and aggressive mode (-A) when appropriate.

2. NSE scripts: Leverage the scripting engine for deeper checks; write custom scripts for your environment.

3. Stealth and speed: Tune timing (-T), parallelism, and retransmits; pick SYN scans (-sS) when that’s acceptable.

4. IPv6 too: Don’t ignore v6 address space; scan dual-stack assets.

5. Diff and track: Compare scans over time; alert on new open ports and unexpected services.

6. Respect boundaries: Scan only with authorization; coordinate windows to avoid surprises.

How to Display Nmap Skills on Your Resume

8. Kali Linux

Kali Linux is a Debian-based distro tailored for offensive security, forensics, and research with an armory of tools ready to go.

Why It's Important

It’s a compact lab in a box. From recon to exploitation to reporting, Kali streamlines the flow.

How to Improve Kali Linux Skills

Harden the platform and work with intent:

1. Update routinely: Keep packages and kernels fresh. Command: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

2. Accounts and passwords: Use a unique user; strong passphrases; disable what you don’t need.

3. Firewall: Enable and configure UFW or nftables; default deny, allow by need.

4. Secure SSH: Key-based auth, disable password logins, change the default port only if it simplifies noise reduction, and restrict by source where possible.

5. Network privacy: Use a trustworthy VPN when appropriate; isolate labs from production networks.

6. MAC frameworks: Consider AppArmor or SELinux profiles to limit blast radius.

7. Encryption: Protect disks with LUKS; use GPG or age for files; back up keys safely.

8. Backups: Snapshot VMs; script rsync/tar jobs; test restores.

9. Tool familiarity: Know what each tool does and when not to run it. Documentation and man pages are your friends.

10. Stay aware: Track release notes and security advisories for major tools.

How to Display Kali Linux Skills on Your Resume

9. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a toolkit for web application security testing—proxy, scanner, repeater, intruder, and more—built for methodical probing.

Why It's Important

It uncovers logic slips, injection flaws, and session gaps that scanners alone miss, and it helps you prove risk with reproducible steps.

How to Improve Burp Suite Skills

Turn dials, extend, iterate:

1. Keep it updated: Benefit from newer scanning engines and bug fixes.

2. Extensions: Add tested BApp extensions to extend coverage, but prune anything stale or noisy.

3. Custom scan configs: Target attack types that match the app stack; throttle where endpoints are fragile.

4. Manual finesse: Repeater for surgical tests, Intruder for fuzzing, Sequencer for token analysis, Comparer for change diffs.

5. Out-of-band testing: Use collaborator-style checks to catch SSRF and blind vulnerabilities.

6. Secure your setup: Protect project files, use strong passwords, and avoid intercepting production credentials casually.

How to Display Burp Suite Skills on Your Resume

10. PowerShell

PowerShell is Microsoft’s automation shell and scripting language—excellent for administration, incident response, and configuration at scale.

Why It's Important

It lets defenders move fast across fleets: gather artifacts, remediate issues, and enforce policy consistently.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

Lock down and light up visibility:

1. Execution policies and signing: Set restrictive policies; sign scripts and modules; verify provenance.

2. Logging: Enable script block, module, and transcription logging; centralize and alert on suspicious patterns.

3. JEA (Just Enough Administration): Least-privilege task endpoints instead of full admin shells.

4. AMSI: Keep AMSI enabled to inspect and flag malicious content at runtime.

5. Constrained Language Mode: Limit what untrusted code can do; pair with WDAC or AppLocker.

6. Patch and versions: Keep PowerShell and Windows patched; prefer PowerShell 7 where feasible.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

11. AWS Security

AWS Security bundles identity, network, data protection, detection, and response capabilities across the AWS platform in a shared responsibility model.

Why It's Important

Cloud moves quickly. Strong guardrails—access controls, encryption, segmentation, and monitoring—keep velocity from turning into risk.

How to Improve AWS Security Skills

Build with least privilege; verify continuously:

1. Identity first: Design tight IAM policies, use MFA everywhere, and segment accounts with AWS Organizations and SCPs.

2. Encryption by default: Manage keys in KMS; encrypt at rest and in transit; rotate and scope keys minimally.

3. Network boundaries: Isolate with VPCs, subnets, Security Groups, and NACLs; prefer private endpoints and VPC endpoints (PrivateLink).

4. Detection and logging: Turn on CloudTrail org-wide; use CloudWatch metrics and alarms; enable GuardDuty and Detective for threat findings.

5. Posture management: Continuously check resources with Config; centralize findings in Security Hub; remediate with automated playbooks.

6. Vulnerability and patching: Use Amazon Inspector (v2) for EC2/ECR; maintain SSM Patch Manager baselines.

7. Secrets management: Store secrets in Secrets Manager or Parameter Store; rotate and audit access.

8. Perimeter: Use AWS WAF and Shield where internet-facing; minimize public exposure.

How to Display AWS Security Skills on Your Resume

12. Azure Security

Azure Security spans identity, posture management, network controls, data protection, and monitoring across Microsoft’s cloud. Terms have evolved: Azure Security Center is now Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Azure Active Directory is now Microsoft Entra ID.

Why It's Important

From hybrid to multi-cloud, consistent controls and clear visibility reduce blast radius and make audits less harrowing.

How to Improve Azure Security Skills

Modernize names, strengthen practices:

1. Defender for Cloud secure score: Track and remediate recommendations; automate where safe.

2. MFA and strong auth: Enforce MFA via Microsoft Entra ID; prefer phishing-resistant methods.

3. Least privilege: Use RBAC with tight scopes; review and prune role assignments regularly; employ PIM for just-in-time elevation.

4. Network controls: Apply Network Security Groups and Azure Firewall; use Private Endpoints for PaaS; inspect egress.

5. Encrypt everything: Enable encryption at rest and in transit; manage keys with Key Vault; use customer-managed keys where required.

6. Identity protection: Leverage Entra ID Protection to detect risky sign-ins and users; automate responses.

7. Monitoring: Centralize telemetry with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics; set alerts for anomalies.

8. Policy as code: Enforce Azure Policy and Initiative assignments; remediate drift continuously.

9. Patch and inventory: Keep VMs and services current; maintain asset inventories with tags and governance.

How to Display Azure Security Skills on Your Resume