Cybersecurity is a word that usually comes with fear and excitement. This is because of how people see cybersecurity. There are many aspect people see this word, it’s because people are unaware of what cybersecurity means. The word defines its nature in this technical world it’s a security given to the content or thing around the digital world. I knew the first question that rises in your mind do I need to protect it?
Yes, it’s not limited to the cybersecurity people, it’s not limited to the organization, it’s everyone in the world who need to protect their information. You may be wondering what kind of information I need to protect.
Is Cybersecurity Hard In 2023? Before answering this question you need to set back and think about your daily routine, maybe this seems to be funny but the reality is yes what you do daily is linked to cybersecurity because we live in a digital world dominated by the internet, starting from paying a monthly bill using billing application, ordering foods, purchasing goods in online stores and chatting with friends. Everything you do is using smartphones, a computer that is interconnected through the internet so whenever you use these applications you share some kind of your information starting from your bank details to the photos you take previous day everything roams around through the internet. This information if not secured will cause people to lose money using Bank details, identity theft, loss of important data, etc
Cybersecurity is just a practice of adopting certain technologies, methods, and processes along with some policies to protect the network, system, and sensitive information from digital attacks. The ideology behind cybersecurity attracted many people to learn about it and set their career path across cybersecurity. But the first question that comes up is Is Cybersecurity Hard In 2023?
But the fruitful answer is No. All you need is
- Problem solving ability.
- Paying attention to details.
- Most importantly, passion for learning cybersecurity works well.
Here I will discuss a few things in this article, that would give you a clear understanding of your vision about cybersecurity, and eventually, it will clear your doubt about how cybersecurity is not hard to learn and you can happily set it as your career path.
Table of Contents
What does cybersecurity do?
Cybersecurity is implementing methods, technology, and process to achieve integrity, and confidentiality of the data, computer systems, and network against the digital attack.
- An entry-level role the work is to protect the data from attack at the lowest level and to maintain the network systems properly.
- At the mid-level, the primary job is to monitor the network all the time and find possible threats that could occur in the system.
- To protect data against various attacks using certain tools like antivirus, and password protectors.
- No network or system is fully secured, so the job is to frequently test the network to find the weakness and protect the system before it is compromised by the attacker.
- An individual should know to read the report and find what actually is going on inside the network in case of any compromise from an external attacker and also know its strength of it.
Going on to a higher position like cybersecurity Engineer the role is to implement a high-level technique to protect against hacking, malware, etc.
- Also, they need to think outside of the box even thinking like a hacker and implement new techniques to add an extra layer of protection to the data to make it very hard to be compromised.
- The person should have expertise in coding, the latest trend, and technology. Be up to date with the threats, systems, and technology. So that he can handle any new attack that arises.
Getting Into Cybersecurity With No Experience
Entry-level jobs in cybersecurity are not hard and it is focused on the basic task of keeping the data secured. Entry-level roles like network administrator, and help desk technician can be your entry point through cybersecurity. Gaining knowledge in programming, network and system administration, and cloud computing would help you get the role.
Degree in a certain subject would help you
- computer science
- cybersecurity engineering
- information technology
- cybersecurity operation
- information assurance
- network and security
- Forensic computing
Job at the entry-level doesn’t require experience or no experience. Fortunately, if you have experience in any relevant field that suite cybersecurity will add to your merit in your resume, the relevant field that is valid for cybersecurity jobs :
- computer Networking
- software development
- security intelligence
Getting inside cybersecurity higher position
If you have no experience in cybersecurity or one or two-year experience in relevant fields is enough to get into cybersecurity but when it comes to growing your career in the field of cybersecurity this won’t be enough you need to add on to this resume to get validated,
For this you need to be certified with:
SYSTEM SECURITY CERTIFIED PRACTITIONER(SSCP): you need at least a year of experience in this field for this certification and knowledge regarding cryptography and risk identification. You will be assessed by a 3-hour exam.
CERTIFIED INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGER (CISM): Individuals need at least five years of experience in this field with at least three years in the position of information security management.
GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONAL: This needs a basic degree of IT and knowledge of security and engineering to know how these work together to protect against digital attacks.
CERTIFIED INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY PROFESSIONAL(CISSP): Individuals need at least five years of experience in the field of cybersecurity. Here you will learn how to alleviate the vulnerability in the web.
CERTIFIED ETHICAL HACKER: This certificate is available only to the cybersecurity technician with at least two years of experience. Here are the individual who is thought about the latest technology, and tools available for hacking. The people are trained to think like perfect hackers.
Requirements for cybersecurity in 2023
Several myths roam around us about the basic requirements needed for entering cybersecurity before going inside the actual need let me first clear all your myth so that you can confidently check if you can set your career in cybersecurity
Here I will discuss a few,
Does cybersecurity need coding: cybersecurity doesn’t require much coding for entry-level jobs but if you want to move on to a higher position then you are supposed to code.
Does cybersecurity need math knowledge: Too much math knowledge is not required, it requires moderate math skills, and few necessary topics like hexadecimal math are required.
Along with the degree courses, an experienced individual must need a certain skill to perform the work they have learned during their courses. The skill needed for the person to grow in cybersecurity in 2023 are:
- Good analyzing skills to find out the actual issue encountered.
- Pay proper attention to the work in both logical and objective ways.
- Proper communication skills
- Knowledge of confidential issues and related laws.
- As the issues are absent on security they need to clear within a short period so the individual should have the ability to work under pressure and manage the time
- Creative thinking or thinking out of the box is a must. In this field, there is no limit a new issue arises every day, and new security breaches come every day so even when a new problem comes your way the individual should have the ability to handle it properly.
- Ability to make decisions confidentially and correctly.
Is cybersecurity a good career in 2023
Of course yes, why not a good career everything in this world is digitalized, everything we do is through the internet we share pictures, personal information like card details, address, personal identification information, Day to day activities, and pay bills through many applications so the company which develops the application needs cybersecurity professional to secure user data and provide security during all kind of transaction.
It’s not limited to the individual’s security there are plenty of organizations, and the company’s who started storing data in a system replacing pen and paper so storing data is not just storing it. The data need to be secured. Some organizations are interconnected through the internet and have their separate network system so the network needs to be secured from all kinds of digital attacks to prevent any malfunction like corruption or loss of data.
Nowadays even government sectors too started using systems for their functioning. Starting from ticket booking in railways, handling citizens’ information, election votes, license approval, and so on. So obviously this information is very sensitive right needed to be secured.
Ultimately all these organizations need cybersecurity professionals to maintain their information. This cause more job opportunity in this field. So why not cybersecurity a good career path? It provides you with plenty of opportunities for you to earn. But you may be confused about what kind of job I get on this career path and get awareness information from here.
At Entry-level cybersecurity
Risk Analyst: The individual need to perform a frequent assessment of the system regarding access control and policies and find if it is a risk or easily compromised by the attacker. They need to be updated with new threats and check the system for its resilience towards the attack.
Network Engineer: They install all the network equipment. They would configure switches and protect them with strong firewalls.
Information Security Analyst: As the name indicates their job is to protect information from cyber attacks. They will analyze the company’s policies to decide if the attack needs to be resolved or mounted.
Incident Response Analyst: Analyzer of the actual digital attack. They will investigate the attack and respond to the cyber attack.
Mid-level jobs cybersecurity
Ethical Hacker: Also named penetration tester. These people need to think like a hacker and check the system for vulnerabilities using various tools. They also design various penetration tools and test them. Network engineering could be the base for an Individual to become an Ethical Hacker.
Security Engineer: most probably like senior Incident Response Analyst. Like Incident Response Analysts they don’t directly respond to the cyber attack. Instead, they design Security-focused tools. As higher officers, they design policies and procedures within organizations.
Forensic Analyst: The individual uses the digital evidence to study how the attacker accessed the system, the network was traversed by an attacker so on, to know how the security breach happened. They also recover lost data.
High-level jobs in cybersecurity
Security Architect: The individual’s role is to research the various attack and design security elements for the organization which prevents malware attacks. These people are also responsible for router, and firewall installation approval.
Chief Information Security Officer: These individuals are the senior officers in cybersecurity. They are responsible for the security of the data in the organization. This work seems simple but the job turns crucial as it covers the privacy of the organization, security, and most importantly it affects the customer experience.
Chief Information Officer: This position came into practice in 1990 as the data that was collected during this period was too large so to handle all this data a leader was appointed and here comes this Information Officer. An individual need not travel through the steps in a cybersecurity position to get an appointment for this position. Instead, they can come to this position directly. A high pay scale and respect for the person in the field add merits to this position.
Conclusion
The Internet of things is now gaining popularity in recent times. In which all electronic devices communicate with each other through networks and exchange data. As its popularity and feature grow it will be adopted in all areas including our houses so this would create more space for the job for cybersecurity professionals. So cybersecurity as of now is considered to be the best field insterms of job opportunities and income in the future days. Refer some basics about cybersecurity.