Top Reasons To Select A Career In Cybersecurity

As the world continues its rapid movements towards digitalization, cyber threats are accelerating as well. During the previous two years, the world has witnessed a tremendous boost in cybercrime, enforced by the increased number of homeworkers because of the global pandemic. The new working model, the massive increase in IoT devices, and the acceleration of cloud adoption will undoubtedly lead to an accelerated increase in cyberattacks.

Government and private organizations are pursuing cybersecurity professionals to detect and stop cyberattacks that can have catastrophic consequences on their work. For instance, a single data breach can cost a company enormous fines to regulatory compliance bodies, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA. At the same time, the reputation damage cannot be predicted easily and can take years to fix.

This article will list the main reasons anyone might consider following a cybersecurity career.

What makes cybersecurity an attractive option?

Low Unemployment Rate

The cybersecurity domain is considered one of the few occupations that do not suffer from unemployment problems found in other professions. According to Cyber Security Ventures, there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally in 2025.

All cybersecurity domains have low unemployment rates, and, according to the previous statistics, the unemployment rate in cybersecurity jobs has reached 0%. All future statistics show that there will be a continual demand for qualified cybersecurity professionals worldwide.

A Challenging and Exciting Profession

Digital technology has been integrated into all aspects of our lives. For instance, organizations of all sizes and industries need to hire cybersecurity professionals to protect their IT systems and precious digital data from adversaries. Additionally, individuals need to seek services and technical advice from IT professionals regarding anything related to the IT field, such as maintaining their privacy when going online.

The field of cybersecurity spans almost everything that touches daily life, including public utilities such as the electric grid, water supplies, and internet infrastructure. The continually emerging cyber threats, such as APT, ransomware, and malware, make this field challenging and require updating professionals' skills constantly.

High Salary

One can often expect a high salary when working in the cybersecurity field, especially for senior-level jobs that earn up to $400,000 and more. Not all cybersecurity professionals earn the same pay. For instance, the seniority level of the person, role difficulty, and the type of work all affect the payment amount. The following lists the highest paying cybersecurity roles:

1. Bug Bounty specialists: A bug bounty hunter is a white hat hacker who uses the same techniques and tools that cybercriminals employ to infiltrate IT systems, networks, and applications. Those" legitimate" hackers try to find security flaws and vulnerabilities and other security gaps on target systems, so they discover them before black hackers do. Giant IT companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo! offer high rewards for bug bounty specialists. HackerOne, which runs a bug bounty platform, has revealed that hackers using its platform have contributed to resolving more than 181,000 vulnerabilities. The amount paid out to them exceeds $100 million.

2. Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): CISO is a senior-level role responsible for overseeing and managing an organization's information security program. They work with other executives to set an organization's IT security policies and define the procedures that must be followed by all users accessing an organization's IT resources. The average annual salary for CISO exceeds $170,000.

3. Cybersecurity Sales Engineer: While we expect to see people with hands-on experience earn the highest salary in the cybersecurity field, markets and salespersons can earn even more. According to payscale, it exceeds $117,000.

4. Penetration Tester: Pent testers are also known as ethical hackers. This profession has become common among organizations recently because of the increased number of cyberattacks; organizations need to hire people like hackers to stop exploits and assess the security of information systems and cyber defenses. According to payscale.com, the average salary for a pen tester exceeds $100,000 annually for people with 5 to 9 years of experience, according to payscale.com.

Select the industry that best suits one's interest

The most beautiful feature is becoming a cybersecurity expert is choosing one's preferred industry. For example, most professions require a person to select it previously and remain within its scope for the rest of one's life. Things are different in the cybersecurity field. A person can choose to work in financial institutions, government organizations, NGO and non-profit organizations, private companies such as banks and insurance companies. Really any entity that utilizes digital technology to protect customer data from data breaches and other cyber threats.

Huge Potential for Growth

There are huge growth opportunities in both the industry and self-learning when working in the cybersecurity field. The cybersecurity field is growing rapidly to include new technologies and areas, such as IoT, cloud computing, and AI. A serious cybersecurity expert needs to have broad knowledge about different IT technologies. These technology areas include knowing how computer networking works, TCP/IP fundamentals, cloud computer architecture, penetration testing, attack vectors employed by attackers to compromise endpoint devices, how to use encryption, and the best methods to protect secure systems from intruders.

Being a cybersecurity professional requires one to remain up-to-date on the latest attack techniques and defense tools; in other words, one will stay engaged and challenged with the latest technologies, making one feel clever and satisfied mentally and professionally.

How to Get Started?

Now that you have a fair understanding of the considerable potential of the cybersecurity profession, it's time to talk about how you can discover if this career is best for you. The best way to test yourself is to enroll in cybersecurity lessons or follow a beginner certification path to see if it's a good fit. Cybrary offers numerous cybersecurity courses for beginners. The following lists the most popular ones:

1. Introduction to IT & Cybersecurity: A course for newcomers to the cybersecurity field.

2. Fundamental Cryptography Data Protection: Learn how to use encryption techniques to protect sensitive data at rest and in transit.

3. Become a Network Engineer: A great course for beginning your trip as a network engineer.

4. Become a SOC Analyst - Level 1: Those professionals stand in the front line of defense against cyberattacks. This course prepares you also to take a beginner certification in security, such as the Security+ exam.

5. CompTIA Security+ (SY0-601): This is the most essential and important certificate for beginning a career in the IT security field.

Summary

Thousands of people graduate from computer science programs every month; most of these graduates can strengthen their cybersecurity skills to work in the cybersecurity field. The demand for IT security experts is growing worldwide, boosted by the massive increase in cyberattacks. This article lists the main reasons to consider a career in cybersecurity and suggests the top courses to follow on Cybrary to begin your first step.

Further Reading:

1. Top Paying Cybersecurity Jobs in 2021, Accessed 2021/11/11, https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/top-paying-cybersecurity-jobs