Information security shares some overlap with cybersecurity—in fact, cybersecurity is a subset of information security. However, cybersecurity focuses exclusively on protecting digital assets, while information security covers digital and physical information across all mediums. Discover whether the security specialist profession fits your strengths and interests https://remotemode.net/ by exploring daily tasks and responsibilities. Instead of searching for jobs, candidates create a profile and Whitetruffle matches them with employers. Businesses like Postmates, Venmo, GoPro, and Netflix use Whitetruffle to find tech employees. CISA is a national organization that seeks to understand, manage, and reduce risk to cyber and physical infrastructure.
- A major corporation or organization uses a security specialist to protect its software and network security system.
- As cybersecurity continues to grow in importance, more specialized roles are emerging.
- Others consider these cybersecurity careers to exist under the same umbrella of computer security.
- This number is estimated from over 2,103,024 employees, users past and present job advertisements from Indeed.com.
- CyberDegrees.org is committed to delivering content that is objective and actionable.
Today, of course, there are a great many college courses specializing in information security. If you have a degree in computer science, it shouldn’t be hard to get a job right out of college—but a degree isn’t the be-all or end-all. Usually, these specialists have spent a number of years working in IT departments as computer or network systems administrators.
Hard Skills
According to a Burning Glass Technologies report, 46% of cybersecurity jobs require 3-5 years of experience. Read this guide to learn about the professional certifications that can help security specialists secure higher paying jobs and promotions. Specific fallout from security breaches can vary depending on the type of work an organization does. The majority of IT security specialists hold a bachelor’s how to become a security specialist degree in computer science or a related field. Fortunately, being an adept security specialist makes you a prime candidate for roles in computer forensics, penetration testing, security consulting, security management, and security architecture. We recommend that you align these goals with your personality, interests, and values, as this will ensure your career choice will be rewarding and fulfilling.
An employer might want candidates to have gained specific certificates, as these can teach you particular essential skills. Also, even if one of these certificates isn’t required for a role, it may still be preferable, or at least beneficial. To get hired as a security specialist, you always want to develop your skills and knowledge as much as possible, and certificates help you to do exactly that. If the above description of a security specialist’s role and skill set appeals to you, what steps should you take to get started on this career path? Below is a five-stage process that will take you from a point of being inexperienced in cyber security to getting hired as a security specialist. These cyber security experts use their in-depth understanding of security threats, technologies, and countermeasures to ensure that an organization has robust computer security systems.
Take the next step toward your future.
A number of coding bootcamps have emerged that teach students the fundamentals of programming languages in a short amount of time. There are even a couple of specialized cybersecurity code academies which purport to have a high graduation rate. For the programming route, we’d suggest learning languages such as assembly, C, and Java—many common exploits use these languages as well.