Do Cyber Security Jobs Offer Best Career Opportunity
Date Added: 23/08/2021
Date Added: 23/08/2021
Cyber security experts are in huge demand. This is because cyber-crimes are up and threaten governments, businesses, and individuals. Cybercriminals, hackers, and attackers have become inventive and online crimes are becoming highly sophisticated.
This makes governments and companies scramble for cyber-security experts to thwart attacks and keep systems secure from the gaze of cybercriminals.
The outlook survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ says cybersecurity jobs are one of the fastest-growing career areas with a predicted growth rate of 31 percent until 2029.
A qualification in cyber security is worth the investment as the number of unfilled cyber security jobs in 2020 had been 3.5 million, according to reports.
The rapid advancement in technology and bulging cyber-crimes have led to standardized training on cyber security. Presently, it is also possible to pursue online cyber security courses from reputed national and international universities.
As far as cyber security is concerned, Data is the main concern of all organisations irrespective of the industry. Despite many control mandates, compliance requirements are different in many companies. So the challenge is to ensure secrecy and access to data. To meet these goals people, processes and technology have to be in sync.
The cyber security profession has various roles to perform-- entry-level positions like Network Administrator to Cyber Security Architect.
Cybersecurity professionals are needed in every organization to ensure data security. A college degree is a basic qualification and certificate courses are is another point of entry into the career.
Skills central to advance cyber security are in high demand. They include
The growing ‘networked’ economy is fuelling a massive spurt in cyber-crimes. So, most organisations are worried about cyber security and data safety.
According to a 2018 study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, a data breach will incur a loss of at least $3.86 million, while a large-scale breach will cost 100 times more loss for companies.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, has reported that more than 4 billion records had been compromised to data breaches in the past few years. No surprise companies are willing to pay millions of dollars to cyber security experts to keep their IT infrastructure intact against malicious attacks.
A proper training certificate in cybersecurity can get a starting career from where experience and extra qualifications can be built up to enter bigger roles.
Beyond a college degree and a training certificate, many soft skills are imperative for this job. Problem-solving is the main requisite as safeguarding data involves grappling with many challenges. Critical thinking is one attribute most essential to the success in this role including Incident responder profiles.
Sometimes, the cybersecurity professional’s role becomes that of an avenger raising the profile to a saviour who will fight dark forces to save the community from cybercrimes. The position of security engineer is a role in that category.
Enthusiasts assume more responsibility and can shine in roles like Penetration Testers.
For students and professionals with a passion for a career in software and technology, no doubt cyber security offers the best opportunity to work in a dynamic environment and win a handsome salary.
The career path in the cybersecurity area hinges on the qualifications earned. For an entry-level job, a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity will suffice.
But the bulk of the jobs in cybersecurity warrant a bachelor’s degree with IT field exposure such as computer science and information technology.
A master’s degree in cybersecurity in areas like computer engineering or data science can open up advanced job opportunities.
But the basic driver of a great career will be an abiding passion in knowing how technology works. There must be a clear idea of what to protect and the factors that harms its security.
Many experts advise internship or apprenticeship in IT to become well versed in areas such as administering, configuring systems, database management, networks, and coding. A good grounding in IT procedures also helps.
Employers generally seek a specialist who has expertise in one specific area. So plan for 10 years to reach the top security career from the starter IT jobs and build the right skills.
Managing Email security is the job of the exchange administrator while network administrators handle network security and forensics. Security administration has to be safe in the hands of the system administrator.
Cybersecurity professionals have to develop, configure, and troubleshoot many technologies including encryption, firewalls, malware protection, IPS, network analytics, identity access, and authentication.
In handling security controls managers and auditors have a big role. For compliance processes, legal experts and GRC professionals are to be in place.
There are many roles and profiles of cyber security staff ranging from incident response, threat analysts, forensic investigators, and security architects.
Market research reports indicate a big shortage of cyber security professionals in which Asia Pacific has the highest around 2.15 million. To bridge the gap between demand and supply of cyber security personnel, colleges and universities are adding more cyber security courses and expanding cyber security training certifications.
In the UK, many universities offer Cyber Security courses such as the University of Abertay’s MSc Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security, Queen’s University Belfast program of Applied Cyber Security M.Sc. The University of Newcastle led Computer Security and Resilience MSc. Some more courses are below.
These courses cover cryptography, fraud detection, system device, network security plus the technical, legal, and commercial aspects with placement facility and a lucrative salary. Some courses are multi-disciplinary and dovetail technical and non-tech areas like criminology, risk management, and law.