The demand for cybersecurity experts is at an all-time high. Techcrunch says employers’ posted more than 300,000 cybersecurity jobs between September 2017 and August 2018 and globally there is a gap of nearly three million unfilled roles to be filled. Interestingly, many of these jobs are not traditional programming positions but instead, range across a variety of subsets within the industry.
What are the other kinds of cybersecurity positions in the field today and what skills you need to land one of these high-paying jobs? Here are five examples.
- You’ve probably heard of testers in the computer sciences. They usually test software to see if they can break it. If the software passes the test, it can usually be offered to a client or end-user. A Penetration Tester is a cybersecurity expert that tests and monitors software and hardware to see if it can be infiltrated. The goal is to look for holes to exploit, just like a hacker would. These anti-intrusion methods help organizations detect and prepare for potential threats from hackers. Like software testers, each probe of a network or software requires that the Penetration Tester document their efforts to break in. If the hack is successful, even better, because programmers can then go back and fix the vulnerability before a hacker can discover it.
- A Computer Crime Investigator role is just as cool as it sounds. If you love computers as much as you love cop shows on TV, this job might be perfect for you. The Computer Crime Investigator works to recover data from computers when they were used in the commission of a crime. You could have a hand in prosecuting hackers or cyber terrorists by creating analysis on how they broke in and the steps they took once they were inside. These professionals show up in court to testify and help prosecute the cyber-terrorist while working to recover the missing and stolen data.
- An Ethical Hacker may have the coolest sounding job in all of cybersecurity. They’re the white hat good guys (or gals) of the computer world. Their job is to act as a black hat hacker by infiltrating networks. They don’t do it for ransom, though; they do it to help companies stop hackers from following in the Ethical Hacker’s footsteps (or keystrokes).
- Then there is the Threat Hunter, whose job in some ways is similar to the Penetration Tester and Ethical Hacker. All three share the same goal; to find and try to exploit network vulnerabilities. How these jobs differ depends upon the company they’re working for. Typically Threat Hunters will work for a third-party cybersecurity team serving as consultants to a large or midsize firm. These consultants are very popular primarily because there aren’t enough cybersecurity workers to go around.
- Finally, the Cryptographer or Cryptanalyst is the programmer that designs algorithms, ciphers, code, and scripts that make your network more secure. They are programmers with an ethical purpose to keep data away from anyone without security clearance.
If you’re interested in these or other jobs in the cybersecurity field, Blackstone is standing by to help. Call us today.