Cybersecurity – a guide to your bright career

Humans, nowadays, have become highly prone to the risk of cyber threats. Be it phishing, data breach, identity theft, malware or ransomware attacks, nobody wants to be in a position of compromise. The world wide web has access to everyone’s personal, professional, and financial data which can be leveraged or misused if landed in the hands of wrong people. All these threats and cyber attacks have led to the need for a strong cybersecurity system in place, for both the public and corporates. Below is a helpful guide for anyone seeking a career in cybersecurity, be it a college student or a working professional.

Courses

The field of cybersecurity has many courses that deal with different aspects of the security landscape. From basic network security to forensics, you can choose any discipline you like and become a specialised professional in it. All the courses are certified and there’s practically no limit to how much you can learn. Certified ethical hacker certification is one of the most sought after certificate courses by students because of the high demand and payscale for such professionals in the global job market.

Eligibility

Having a background in Computer Science or Information Technology is a plus, but it is not a mandatory requirement, which is another reason why professionals from different fields are making a switch to a career in cybersecurity. You don’t need any particular educational qualification to enrol yourself in a cybersecurity course. If you don’t have any foundational knowledge of the course you want to study, you can take a basic course first and start from scratch without having to worry about the age eligibility factor.

Scope of work

Cybersecurity professionals are highly demanded, respected and paid than their IT counterparts in today’s industry. The world is going through a digital transformation. Every business is embracing digitalisation, and every day there is a new app, new software, new technology ready to be launched to make people’s lives easier. New technology comes with new loopholes for hackers to exploit. And new digital citizens mean new victims for hackers to exploit. There is no surprise as to why the demand for cybersecurity experts keeps rising every day.

As a cybersecurity professional, you can get work in any industry (public or private) that uses digital resources:

1. Transportation and telecommunication
2. Healthcare and wellness
3. Administration and national defence
4. Investigative organisations
5. Technology, IT and consultancy
6. Energy and aerospace
7. Finance, banking and cryptocurrency
8. Trade and e-commerce
9. Security firms
10. News and media
11. Education

The list goes on. There is hardly anything on the planet that is left untouched by the digital waves. From your neighbour to your country’s nuclear power plants, anything and everything can be hacked, which is why cybersecurity professionals never go out of a job.

Salary

The salary of a cybersecurity professional is lucrative enough to attract people from other fields as well. Professionals who have undergone a CHFI course earn an average of ₹21.4lakhs, and up to ₹33.4lakhs per year. Indian cybersecurity space, like the rest of the world’s, is growing at a rapid rate. And many job portals have reported that the packages of cybersecurity experts handsomely exceed those of other IT experts.

Future

Many people worry about the future validity of their jobs as new and advanced machines are invented every day. Even people working in IT departments are rendered useless sometimes because there is a new software in town that can do their job quicker, better and cheaper. But when it comes to cybersecurity professionals, there is hardly any threat of machines taking over. Even the smartest technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (which are responsible for replacing human labour like industries did) are not foolproof or resistant to cyber-attacks. Just as you need actual humans to create and program these technologies, you need actual humans to guard them and make them secure from bad actors.

Make sure you save this guide to your bookmarks so that you can have it handy whenever you need to share the golden prospects of a cybersecurity career with your friends, peers or colleagues.