From foundational concepts that anchor secure system design to the advanced practices that defend complex, interconnected infrastructures, this framework offers a structured path for developing and applying cybersecurity expertise. It spans the full spectrum of capabilities required to understand, anticipate, and mitigate cyber risk, including human factors, legal and regulatory dimensions, technical attack and defense mechanisms, and the protection of modern software, platforms, and physical–digital systems. It emphasises rigorous thinking about threats and vulnerabilities, disciplined engineering of secure systems, and the ability to respond effectively to evolving adversarial behaviours across diverse environments.

Eristotle’s Cybersecurity Competency Model is specifically tailored to organise and grow the knowledge and skills required for general cybersecurity practice and aligns competencies to key knowledge areas across the Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (CyBOK).

Foundations and Governance

Competency	Description	Proficiency
Cybersecurity Concepts & Terminology	Uses core security concepts (CIA, threat, vulnerability, risk, assurance, trust) correctly across contexts.	Foundational → Applied
Security Architecture Mindset	Understands how people, process, and technology interact to create a security posture, and where to place controls.	Applied → Adaptive
Body of Knowledge Navigation	Maps problems and curricula to CyBOK knowledge areas and explains their scope and relationships.	Applied → Adaptive
Risk Definitions & Concepts	Distinguishes risk, threat, vulnerability, likelihood, impact from technical and business perspectives.	Foundational → Advanced
Risk Assessment & Analysis	Performs structured risk assessments and prioritises treatments for key assets.	Applied → Adaptive
Risk Governance & Policy	Aligns policies, risk appetite, and controls with organisational objectives and constraints.	Expert
Business Continuity & Preparedness	Connects risk scenarios to incident response, continuity, and recovery planning.	Applied → Adaptive

Human, Legal, and Organisational Factors

Competency	Description	Proficiency
User Behaviour & Usable Security	Recognises how cognitive biases and usability issues drive insecure behaviour; identifies design frictions.	Applied → Adaptive
Social Engineering & Awareness	Identifies social-engineering tactics and supports awareness interventions to mitigate them.	Applied → Adaptive
Organisational Culture & Security Climate	Understands how structures, incentives, and norms shape security behaviour and culture.	Applied → Adaptive
Cyber Law & Regulatory Landscape	Describes main cyber-related legal domains and where security duties arise.	Foundational → Advanced
Jurisdiction & Enforcement Challenges	Explains cross-border, attribution, and enforcement challenges in cyberspace.	Applied → Adaptive
Legal Compliance in Practice	Translates legal/regulatory requirements into security and privacy controls.	Applied → Adaptive
Privacy Concepts & Rights	Explains privacy principles, user rights, and expectations in digital environments.	Foundational → Advanced
Data Protection Controls	Relates privacy requirements to technical and organisational measures.	Applied → Adaptive
Online Tracking & Profiling	Describes tracking/profiling mechanisms and associated risks.	Applied → Adaptive

Attacks, Adversaries, and Operations

Competency	Description	Proficiency
Threat Actor Modelling	Profiles threat actors, motivations, capabilities, and targeting patterns.	Expert
Attack Campaigns & Kill Chains	Maps intrusions across stages and uses kill chain/ATT&CK-style reasoning.	Expert
Deception & Counter‑Intelligence	Recognises attacker deception and defensive deception opportunities.	Applied → Adaptive
Digital Evidence Principles	Applies integrity, chain of custody, and admissibility principles to digital evidence.	Foundational → Advanced
Forensic Acquisition & Analysis	Understands core acquisition and artefact analysis concepts for common platforms.	Expert
Incident Reconstruction	Reconstructs probable attack paths from forensic artefacts and logs.	Applied → Adaptive
Monitoring & Detection Concepts	Understands SOC goals, logging, correlation, and alert triage concepts.	Applied → Adaptive
Incident Response Lifecycle	Follows and supports the full incident response process.	Applied → Adaptive
Playbooks & Coordination	Appreciates playbooks, escalation paths, and cross-team coordination.	Applied → Adaptive
Malware Families & Capabilities	Describes major malware categories and their capabilities.	Expert
Exploit & Payload Concepts	Understands exploit, payload delivery, and post-exploitation concepts.	Applied → Adaptive
Evasion & Anti‑Analysis	Recognises common anti-analysis and evasion tactics used by malware.	Applied → Adaptive

Systems, Software, and Infrastructure Security

Competency	Description	Proficiency
Identity & Authentication Fundamentals	Understands identifiers, credentials, MFA, and core protocols.	Applied → Adaptive
Access Control Models	Explains DAC, MAC, RBAC, ABAC and their practical trade-offs.	Applied → Adaptive
Accountability & Audit	Understands logs, non‑repudiation, and audit trails as accountability tools.	Applied → Adaptive
OS Security Foundations	Understands processes, memory, isolation, and privilege concepts in OSs.	Applied → Adaptive
Virtualisation & Container Risks	Describes hypervisor/container threats and isolation mechanisms.	Applied → Adaptive
Hardening & Patch Management	Understands OS hardening and patch/update management concepts.	Applied → Adaptive
Secure Design Principles	Applies secure design principles in software/system architectures.	Expert
Secure SDLC Integration	Integrates security activities into requirements, design, build, and test.	Applied → Adaptive
Common Software Vulnerabilities	Recognises common classes of vulnerabilities in web/mobile/enterprise apps.	Applied → Adaptive
Security Testing & Verification	Understands static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing, and review concepts.	Applied → Adaptive
Distributed Systems Threats	Describes security challenges in distributed systems and services.	Applied → Adaptive
Network Security Concepts	Understands segmentation, firewalls, IDS/IPS, and zero‑trust ideas.	Expert
Physical & Link‑Layer Risks	Recognises threats and mitigations at physical/link network layers.	Applied → Adaptive
CPS Security	Understands risk characteristics of ICS/SCADA and other CPS.	Applied → Adaptive
Embedded & Hardware Threats	Recognises side‑channels, Trojans, supply‑chain and tamper threats.	Expert
CPS Risk & Safety Integration	Relates cyber risk to reliability and physical safety in CPS.	Applied → Adaptive

Cryptography and Trust Foundations

Competency	Description	Proficiency
Crypto Primitives Understanding	Understands basic primitives and the properties they provide.	Foundational → Applied
Protocols & Key Management Concepts	Recognises the role of protocols and key lifecycle management.	Applied → Adaptive
Crypto Misuse & Limitations	Identifies common misuse patterns and the need for standards.	Applied → Adaptive
Practical Crypto Engineering	Appreciates how crypto is embedded into real systems and APIs.	Applied → Adaptive
Protocol Analysis Mindset	Reasons about protocol goals, assumptions, and attack surfaces.	Applied → Adaptive
Usability & Deployability in Crypto	Understands trade-offs between theoretical security and deployability.	Applied → Adaptive
Specification & Modelling Concepts	Understands that formal methods model systems and desired properties.	Foundational → Applied
Verification & Analysis Techniques	Appreciates how formal verification uncovers subtle security flaws.	Applied → Adaptive
Limits & Practical Use	Knows where formal methods are most impactful and their constraints.	Applied → Adaptive

Cross-Cutting Core Competencies

Competency	Description	Proficiency
Analytical & Critical Thinking	Analyses complex, ambiguous security information and forms reasoned judgements.	Expert
Communication & Stakeholder Engagement	Communicates security issues effectively to technical and non‑technical audiences.	Expert
Ethical & Professional Conduct	Acts in line with legal, regulatory, and ethical expectations, including privacy and rights.	Expert
Lifelong Learning & Adaptation	Maintains currency with evolving threats, technologies, and practices.	Foundational → Expert