“Cybersecurity may be fought with technology, but it is people who triumph. We must invest in the future generations of professionals who will carry on the fight.”
Let’s see what the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has to say about cybersecurity professionals.
The demand for cybersecurity professionals is increasing consistently and is expected to rise by 31% between 2019 and 2029, which is much faster than the average for all other occupations. This is reason enough to tell you how big a boost can you give to your career if you go with a Simplilearn’s cyber security course.
The growing frequency of cyberattacks has made the demand for cybersecurity professionals go high. With every other task going digital, and with more and more people depending on their smart devices for their tasks, they don’t think before sharing their personal information over the Internet.
The constant growth in cybercrime has put government agencies and businesses at the risk of a persistent threat to their sensitive and crucial business data, customer data, financial information, identity information, and other business secrets. The professionals who protect businesses from cybercriminals are required here. At this point, cybersecurity professionals come into action.
Who is a Cybersecurity Professional?
As the term itself implies, the professionals responsible for securing the information system of an organization is referred to as cybersecurity professional. As a cybersecurity professional, you are required to plan and execute security measures to protect computer networks and systems of your organization. You need to identify the access points, processes, and people to the information and then synchronize and implement security policies. With the application of multi-layer security policies leveraging your skills, you can efficiently protect the IT infrastructure from malware, viruses, web threats, DoS attacks, phishing, etc.
The responsibilities of a cybersecurity professional increase with the increasing number of cyberattacks and the ways they perform hacking. There is no business sector that has remained unaffected by cybercriminals. Cybercriminals have attacked every sector irrespective of its size and type.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Cybersecurity Professional
New security threats pop up daily, and cybersecurity professionals are required to stay updated with the latest techniques used by hackers. Put simply, cybersecurity professionals are involved in planning and carrying out security measures to protect an organization’s computer system, edge devices, data, and networks from malicious hackers.
Their primary responsibility is to prevent the system from data breaches, and controlling and reacting to the attacks caused.
Many professionals have programming, system administration or math, and statistics in the background. While these are crucial skills, other critical skills you need to acquire to become a cybersecurity professional are curiosity, research, critical thinking, and passion for learning. Apart from these skills, you need to be creative enough to outsmart the creativity of hackers.
Some important responsibilities of a cybersecurity pro are:
- Monitor your organization’s network and application for security breaches and identify any violation or irregular activities.
- Set up and install software, such as firewalls and other data encryption programs, in order to protect crucial and sensitive information.
- Prepare reports that contain documentation of breaches that have occurred and the damage or losses caused by those breaches.
- You are required to simulate the attacks to find out vulnerabilities and in the system before they are exploited by the hackers. In other words, you are required to perform penetration testing required to identify weaknesses, if any.
- Research the current IT security trends.
- You need to develop security standards and best practices to avoid breaches in your organization.
- Recommend security practices and enhancements to the senior level IT or management staff.
- Guide computer users when they are required to install or learn about the latest security procedures and products.
- To ensure compliance with security practices, you are required to perform regular audits.
- Implement comprehensive vulnerability management systems across all assets in the cloud and on-premises.
Apart from the above duties, as a cybersecurity professional you need to plan a defense strategy that may include installing firewalls, control the data flow process, and monitor access to secure data and protect the network. You are also required to provide training to staff members on security awareness and best security practices so that the procedures and policies drafted by you, are implemented across the organization as a whole. You need to create the report of attacks and the damage caused very carefully as it will guide the management and executive staff.
Critical Skills for a Cybersecurity Professional
Apart from the technical skills which are a must to become a cybersecurity professional, there are three critical skills you need to develop. They are:
- Strategist: as a cybersecurity professional you need to dynamically implement security measures and controls within organizations, measuring the results of any action. Since the new methods to hack data or information are evolving consistently, you need to be a step ahead, and keep an eye on how hackers enter networks and perform hacking.
- Communicators: to ensure effective coordination with clients and within teams, communication and management skills are musts. Every candidate is affected by technology and security, so cybersecurity professionals must communicate in an effective manner and guide the employees to protect the system in every possible way.
- Persistent learners: with the advancement in technology, hackers find one or the other way to penetrate into the network or system. So you need to keep pace with ongoing research, training, and standard certifications. You are required to learn new technologies and security issues to keep up to date.
Conclusion
The average salary of a cybersecurity professional in India is around INR 723,971, according to . The demand for cybersecurity professionals is skyrocketing day by day in every sector. So, taking up an online training course and getting certified is the best move you can take to give a boost to your career.
Apart from taking care of your hassle-free preparation, an online training provider gives you flexible learning hours and the choice in the mode of learning as well.
All you need to do is get yourself registered to an accredited online training provider.
