Cybersecurity Ventures predicts there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021. So why the rapid expansion in the job market for IT experts? Definitely some skills will inevitably, be in high demand than others despite the shortage in security talent globally. Below are some of the likely most in-demand cybersecurity jobs by 2020 and beyond.
The need for more cybersecurity experts is on a rise and doesn’t seem to go anywhere in the foreseeable future. This is because cyber-attacks are only becoming more rampant and more harmful to governments, large corporates, small enterprises and even specific individuals with valuable information or data. This means that no one, with an online presence, is immune to cyber-attacks. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that job growth rate in information security will be at 37% for the period between 2019 – 2022. This is much faster than the average for all other occupations.
In short, computer science roles are already in high demand in the global market and therefore, adding the security elements only makes it more critical and sought after.
What is the current state of cybersecurity training?
Due to the availability of many jobs, several colleges and various universities offer diplomas and degrees in cybersecurity. Although, it’s yet to become a stable course in the undergraduate curriculum for students majoring in related fields.
Many professionals already practicing the art in the field probably learned it through certificate programs and in-the-field training versus degree programs. Dave Lemarie, a senior director of Technical Operations at Dyn, says that cyber-security was never taught in school and that most people only stumbled or were forced to pursuing it as a career.
Also, as per Diana Burnley, a professor at George Washington University and who was also named the 2014 Cybersecurity Educator of the Year, she predicts an increase of persons into the career as more students attain the required entry grades for various institutions to pursue the broadly defined Cybersecurity course. The nature of threats faced in cybersecurity is critical as it keeps on evolving over time and with the advancement in technology and general know-how on IT at large. Current professionals, therefore, have many options to augment their skill set through certificates from technical training institutions, getting additional degrees through universities or through stand-alone hand-on courses to develop their expertise in certain security field(s). So to catch up with the ever-evolving cyber-threats, the current institutions are setting up IT departments that offer several courses on IT security.
The shortage of cybersecurity workforce has left Chief Information Security Officers and IT security groups shorthanded and scrambling for skills and techniques while the cyber-attacks continues to intensify. Concurrently, corporates are also counter attacking the talent shortage by placing their IT security needs partly or fully into the hands of a third party. For example, cloud providers or Internet Services Providers focus exclusively on offering security as a third party.
Outsourcing security experts also introduces a new risk to the organization or that given enterprise. Most organizations, for these reasons, prefer hiring their own security personnel. This can be related to the rise in demand for security experts.
Common Cybersecurity Positions
Yes, cybersecurity is a common job function, but more often than not do we fail to see it in job titles unless it is for Cybersecurity Engineer, Architect or an Analyst.
Jobs that require cybersecurity know-how will often have a range of titles, for instance, Security Manager, Systems Administrator, Network Engineer/Architect, Forensic Investigator, Systems engineer or Integrator, Security Auditor among other few roles. You can search on websites like Monsters to find a listing of technology jobs with any of the above titles which definitely requires cybersecurity skills.
Common skills require for cybersecurity job roles include but not limited to SIEM Management, Identity management, access management, application security development, intelligence and analytics, detection of intrusions, firewall/IPS/IDS skills, audit and compliance, application development, advanced malware prevention, cloud virtualization, and cloud computing. These are common on elementary skills for any cybersecurity job although most jobs nowadays require a handful of these skills in addition to others.
As per the SANS survey, the mega five industries for cybersecurity professionals are Insurance/Banking/Finance, Information Management/Technology, Professional/consulting services, Government(Defense) and Government (non-defense). These top industries deal with highly sensitive data which is mostly targeted by malicious hackers or cyber experts.
So, which job in the cybersecurity has the brightest future?
There is a range of IT security programs, but they do not actually teach the specific or advanced security management skills that employers and companies are looking for. This means that the security industry is very dynamic and so it makes it hard to sharply point out at which roles will be most important in the future. What’s certain is that all the fundamental roles are going to be in high demand in the foreseeable future. So it should not really matter what specific area one decides to specialize in.
Security experts who also know how write codes will definitely be in higher demand than others. For example, at google company, it is a requirement for most prime positions.
Also, one should aim at investing their time in pursuing a career that is more of software engineering rather than just IT-based. Try not to be a script kiddie and but the person who actually writes the scripts, this way, you will always be better off in the job market.
Conclusion
Currently, we are living in a world where almost everything and everybody, ranging from individuals, governments, critical infrastructure, companies are gradually increasing their dependency on connected systems, devices or even networks. Also, daily in news headlines, we see how these systems, networks or devices are insecure. Malicious groups such as terrorists or hostile nations get better day and night at exploiting these vulnerabilities to access their target data or whatever object they want to steal.
This means there is no end to this rising demand for white hats who can competently detect, block or at least mitigate the unending stream of attacks from the black hats.