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cyber · security

Drone Security Analyst

$90k – $140k
Skills at a glance

Courses for this role

1

Security baseline

6 months

Before you can analyze drones, you need to analyze anything.

Certification
📜 CertificationSecurity+· CompTIA
essential$392

Baseline cert every US gov analyst role expects.

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Course
🎓 CourseIntroduction to Cybersecurity· edX
essentialFree24hbeginner

Vocabulary + mental models, free from NYU.

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Skill
🛠 SkillPython for security tooling· Awesome list
essentialFree

Every custom detector / parser / fuzzer you’ll build.

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2

Drone-specific threat surface

6 months

Where drones break. RF, GNSS, firmware, supply chain.

Course
🎓 CourseGNSS and GPS Security· Udemy
essential10hintermediate$24.99

Spoofing is the #1 attack on airborne autonomy.

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🎓 CourseHardware Security· Coursera
important20hintermediate$49

JTAG + UART + SPI bus sniffing reads like science once you’ve done it.

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Skill
🛠 SkillFirmware RE (Ghidra, binwalk)· NSA Ghidra
essentialFree

Drone firmware is where backdoors and proprietary protocols hide.

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Knowledge
📖 KnowledgeDJI AeroScope / OcuSync
importantFree

DJI’s RF stack is the single most common target in commercial C-UAS.

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📖 KnowledgeDrone-firmware bug-bounty work (PX4, ArduPilot, DJI CVEs)
recommendedFree

Published drone-firmware CVEs are the cheapest way to demonstrate real offensive depth on a resume. PX4 + ArduPilot both run public security trackers.

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3

Operational security

6 months

Taking what you know and folding it into actual mission planning + SOC workflow.

Certification
📜 CertificationOSCP· OffSec
recommended$1,699

Offensive-security cred matters if you’ll red-team your own platforms.

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Skill
🛠 SkillThreat modeling (STRIDE)· Microsoft
importantFree

You’ll be asked for one on every C-UAS deployment.

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Knowledge
📖 KnowledgeICAO drone-security advisories
nice-to-haveFree

Useful for airport-adjacent deployments.

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📖 KnowledgeNDAA Section 848 / supply-chain compliance for drones
importantFree

Section 848 of the FY24 NDAA (and the DJI / Autel restrictions that followed) defines which drones are eligible for federal use. Every defense-adjacent UAS deployment now starts with this compliance check.

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