Whether you are just starting out in cybersecurity, or ready to take your career to the next level, leveling up your programming knowledge is necessary. As you begin to advance in your cybersecurity career, understanding coding will help you stay ahead of hackers and counter attacks.

Here are the top cybersecurity programming languages you need to know to get started:

Python

Widely considered among the easiest programming languages for beginners to learn, Python is used for malware analysis, host discovery, sending and decoding packets, accessing servers, port scanning, and network scanning.

SQL

Stands for Structured Query Language, SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as update data on or retrieve data from a database. Attackers use this language to steal sensitive information, disrupt data stores and wage a series of web-based attacks. If you want to understand attacker activity and prevent SQL injection and other database-related attacks, you will need at least a basic understanding.

PHP

An acronym for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor,” PHP is used to build websites. It is a server-side language that helps hackers understand how web hacking techniques work. PHP is used in most web domains and helps cybersecurity professionals defend against malicious attackers.

JavaScript

Anything you see on a website that is not static was probably implemented through JavaScript. JavaScript is for you if you want to capture cookies, exploit event handlers, and carry out cross-site scripting,

HTML

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages. If attackers want to write a SQL injection attack or embed a malicious script in a website, they’ll do it using HTML. If you want to be able to analyze those attacks, you’ll need to understand HTML.

Not sure where to begin? Check out ITProTV’s DevProTV  library to get your start in programming languages!