Cybersecurity is a wide field with many disciplines, and as such, there is not really a single standard to follow. However, here are some pointers that may help you get started:
- Many security tools will require one of: Windows, macOS, or Linux. Security tools are rarely written for ChromeOS, Android, etc., and therefore tablets, ChromeOS-based ultrabooks, and similar are not recommended.
- Running virtual machines (VMs) is common to experiment with different operating systems, set up servers, exploit vulnerable systems, and more. Generally, to run VMs smoothly (especially Windows VMs, or multiple VMs at once), you should have the following specs:
- CPU: Any midrange processor or above will do. I recommend x86 - despite increasing ARM support (ex. in M1 Macs), many older operating systems are x86 only, and these can be great for learning about or trying exploits of their era. However, if you're confident you won't be running older OSes in a VM, ARM can work as well.
- RAM: 8GB is the minimum I would accept. 12GB is better, and 16GB+ is best.
- Storage: An SSD (either traditional or NVMe) will be a big help with productivity, and keep your machine from feeling sluggish when running VMs. 240GB is enough if you're frugal with space, but 480GB+ is much better.
- Password cracking and other extremely-compute-intensive work doesn't often come up when learning cybersecurity (outside of the occasional CTFs or experiment you might run), so this isn't high on my recommendation list. If you play video games, optimize for those video games - don't get the biggest GPU you can because you assume you'll be cracking passwords.
- Writing and running your own software does not have high requirements unless you are trying to accomplish very large or complex tasks. A Raspberry Pi microcomputer is enough to run most software projects you could/would write; any modern computer running Windows/Mac/Linux will be enough too.
For additional recommendations, please add whatever you expect to do from the above requirements to the personal activities you plan to use the system for, and ask on r/suggestapc or r/suggestalaptop for help selecting exact specs or finding recommended models.
This section was last updated in 2021 and requirements or recommendations will likely need to be scaled in the future.