There is a shortage of skill in the disciplines of Cybersecurity – but at the same time, such skills are in high demand, driven by the high levels of Cyber-Attacks, Cyber Criminality, and regular breaches and compromises of big name organizations. Thus, companies are seeking out skills from qualified and competent professionals to assist with securing systems, data, and their extended perimeters. However, the requirements for skills does not stop there – and extend out to sub-cyber specializations, such as Digital Forensics, SOC (Secure Operations Centre) Analyst’s, and CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response) specialists to provision support for post attack conditions, and investigations.
According to the US source, the ‘Bureau of Labor Statistics’ these Cyber Security Skills are also financially lucrative, with the report concluding that competent professionals working within this field earn an average salary of $116,000 per annum – or in UK currency around £50 per hour as an entry point. Which is why, right now with the backdrop of Cyber-Skill shortage, this is a moment in time for those with aspirations, to change over to the world of Cyber-Security, and those sub derivatives of this specialized skill-sets. Those who have the basic commercial components of what IT is; or for the post graduate’s students who have studied relevant subjects who wish to move on into a lucrative career with long-term prospects – leveraging their base understanding of technology, with a view to evolving them into the spiralized disciplines of the Cyber Security Professional, or the Digital Forensics Responder/Investigator.
Here possibly the main component to achieving success is to is to accommodate a deep level of understanding in the field of the chosen discipline to maximize their opportunity of longer term pragmatic success. For a person who is not already Cyber prepared, the best advice is to take up a course which will prepare them to the pragmatic operational level, by instilling the required skills, methodologies and techniques to make them a well-rounded, and effective competent professionals with hand-on capabilities.
The bottom line may be concluded as – given the current state of Cyber Adversity – successful attacks, and the obvious threat to the global economy, a move over into the Cyber Industry may not only be a good prospect for employment in 2017 and well beyond – but for those who have the required level of skills, they will have a good opportunity to make a contribution to an interconnected society who are currently at HIGH RISK.
John is the Principle at Shadow-Intelligence (Si), partnering with PALISCOPE, BreachAware and iStorage. He is a Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology, Nottingham, Trent University (NTU) and holds the appointment of Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Cyber Forensics and Advanced Threat Investigations (CFATI). For the last decade he has delivered training courses in the Middle, and Far East to Commercial, Industrial, the Financial Services Sector, and Military Agencies, including the UAE, US, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia (KL), Singapore, Argentina, and Sao Paulo
He served in the Royal Air Force 22 years’, specialising in Counterintelligence, working with UK Agencies such as GCHQ/CESG, and others in the fields of SIGINT, COMINT and Satellite Communications, holding appointments such as System ITSO for a CIA SCIF.
In the commercials sectors of IT/Cyber he has worked for/with Logica, Bae, T5, GM, Experian, Betfair, Palace of Westminster, House of Lords/Commons, TSol (Treasury Solicitors) and provided Consultancy to the Saudi Arabian MOD, TRA (Telecommunications Authority (Dubai) and the Military Academy of Malaysia (KL) on SOC, CSIRT, Digital Forensics and OSINT. Within the last 5 years he has focused on Geopolitics, with global expertise around the UAE and Russia, Anti-Terrorist Operations (ATO), Cyber-Warfare, Dezinformatsiya (Disinformation) and Maskirovka (Military Deception).
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