How to Become a Cybersecurity Specialist Career Salary Guide

Furthermore, young students aren’t always aware of the opportunities available to them to enter such a field. According to the BLS, the experienced average information security analyst enjoys a median salary of $99,730 per year or $47.95 per hour.

Keep in mind that most certification exams require significant preparation, and some include experience requirements. A report from Ponemon Institute and IBM showed the average cost of one cyberattack was $4.24 million in 2021. This figure represents the highest level of damage in the last 17 years.

What Information Assurance Engineers Do

IT security professionals are also be expected to monitor the company network for any breaches or vulnerabilities, devising plans for further safeguarding as needed. At a minimum, you should hold a bachelor’s degree to enter this position, though you will need more education or a lot of experience to move into a management position. Your work time will be occupied with finding system vulnerabilities and increasing their protection. In the event of a cyber-attack, you’ll investigate and determine what happened. Cybersecurity specialists handle a broad set of technical responsibilities related to safeguarding sensitive digital information and data.

The most vulnerable are the healthcare, finance, government, manufacturing, and transportation industries. Just this month, the International Maritime Organization reported that its shipping and supply chain networks had been thrown into disarray by a cyber attack. Cybersecurity operations jobs are among the fastest-growing roles in IT, as organizations set up security operations centers and establish IT security teams to monitor and respond to global security incidents. That often means that continuing education is required — both in the form of formal, industry-recognized certifications — and in the form of informal learning and tracking industry developments. In addition, security specialists are also responsible for making sure that other co-workers are kept up-to-date on security best practices, which means they might take on the role of a trainer or an advisor. The Certified Ethical Hacker certification is also considered a more advanced cert because it generally requires that applicants have multiple years of work experience. The goal of an ethical hacker certification is to be able to understand how cyber attacks unfold in order to improve threat assessment and mitigation skills.

Top Online Programs

After completing ten weeks of basic combat training you will complete two phases of advanced individual training. Phase one takes place over 25 weeks at the quarry station naval Technical Training Center in Pensacola Florida followed by 20 weeks of phase 2 training at the US Army cyber school at Fort Gordon Georgia. The army will train you in a number how to become a security specialist of valuable skills such as performing cyber attacks and defenses cyber intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. Tell us a little about yourself and we’ll connect you with schools that offercyber security degreeprograms. In addition to your degree, you may also want to consider getting a certificate in an area of cybersecurity that interests you.

• Go through the job ads and make note of the required certifications; use your class studies to begin getting those skills you need.
• In fact, one out of every seven cyber security specialists did not spend the extra money to attend college.
• Starting as early as the 1990s, simple antivirus software like the Reaper, created by Ray Tomlinson, became necessary to protect user’s online activity.
• Additionally, they secure IT infrastructure, maintain hardware and software updated, establish security standards, and monitor threats like breaches.
• Security analysts, in particular, spend their days studying the devices in use, analyzing network structure, and testing security measures like firewalls and software permissions.
• Companies are listing more jobs and paying top salaries in their bid to find qualified talent in this emerging field.