About Cybersecurity Professional
It has been more than three decades since the development of the cybersecurity industry. In these years, a lot has changed with the changing industry dynamics and technological innovations. In the recent times, the cybersecurity industry is experiencing an exponential growth and is still defining itself with the evolution and development of threats of new and diverse kinds. Although we are inclined to put the charge on technology all the time which is, no doubt, evolving at a rapid pace; the matter of the fact is that threats themselves have become so diversified. And to deal with these diversifying threats, we need cybersecurity specialists with diversified skill sets. So, what could be the roles and responsibilities of the modern age cybersecurity professional?
Cybersecurity Professionals in Transition
Based on the nature of the incident, the team of cybersecurity professionals may include -apart from computer engineers and network security experts – writers, communicators, lawyers, and investigators with variety of expertise. If the attack has a political angle associated with it, journalists, business and human rights activists may also be involved. If a confidential and critical business e-mail has been detected to be compromised, we may have an internal employee communication expert required to solve the case.
Today, a bug in an application software may include about 80-100 professionals working to fix that bug, each one bringing in their value to reduce the risk and ensure immunity from the threat in future. So, this shows the extent to which the cybersecurity industry has diversified.
Hiring the Ideal Cybersecurity Professional
There are two aspects in the perfect fit candidate – first, skill sets like coding and legal analysis that can be taught, and second, instinctive and strategic sensibilities that come naturally to people. In the context of cybersecurity, both these qualities are imperative. For instance, a legal professional may be a quick learner and can be counted upon when learning a new technology is important. Similarly, a technical writer can be detail-oriented or a project manager adaptive. Such instinctive qualities will be of great help while battling threats of different types.
Moreover, expanding the pool of expertise required while hiring will cover a larger area in detecting and combating cyber threats. For example, a software engineer will only consider the threats in their domain, and will not see the threat that a marketing manager would easily detect. Whatever our hiring strategy, it is important to ensure a diversified team of cybersecurity professionals in the organization because the threats are diversified as well.
The Alarming Skills Gap
There is a scarcity of cybersecurity professionals in the market today. They are hard to find, and seek a much higher salary, when available. Cybercriminals, on the other hand, are carrying on with their attacks with highly sophisticated tools and methods. The fact that the cybersecurity department in most enterprises is understaffed is making their task easier than ever. Most of the organizations, especially SMEs can do little to nothing in detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber attacks. If this gap of skilled cybersecurity professionals continues to widen, at some point of time in the future, enterprises will suffer devastating data breach and information compromise that will take a great deal of time and money to recover from.
Online Cybersecurity Training and Certification
Closing the Cybersecurity Talent Gap has thus become mandatory. For this, we need more cybersecurity professionals than there currently are in the industry. And we need them quickly. The best way to achieve this is by opting for online Cybersecurity training courses from reputed and professional training providers.
The discipline of cybersecurity necessitates professionals from diverse walks of life to grow, adapt, and diversify in curbing the cyber threats in a pro-active manner. As a career, cybersecurity provides a dynamic and global path. It involves eliminating malware and cybercrime, innovating data privacy, educating workforce about data safety and the threats associated with it, and how to reduce them. The possibilities are almost endless; all you need is the kick start. If you are interested to learn more about cybersecurity and make it your career, contact us today.
