A computer or any device that is connected to the internet face a threat of attacks, called cybersecurity attacks. Working against those threats and stopping them from doing any harm to your device or its data is called cybersecurity. These attacks are of different types but the all share a same purpose that is stealing your data or doing harm to your network or device. Rate of cyber crimes has seen a drastic increase over last decade. Due to all these, profession of cybersecurity expert saw an increase in its poplularity. Students are actually getting attracted towards this due to the high demand and high salaries of cybersecurity experts.
What is a Cybersecurity Expert
Cybersecurity expert is an IT professional specialized in information security sector. They are the ones who decide what information can be accessed by whom within the organization and outside. They are the ones who upgrade security system programs when required. We can see it as, a security guard or a bodyguard. They safeguard someone or someone’s assets. Same as that a cybersecurity expert safeguards information. Information could belong to a computer, mobile phone or a cloud server. They design a security model, test them, implement them and again test them in real time after installation. Big organizations have big amount of data that needs to be secured otherwise a small breach can cause a big disaster. This is something no organization would ever want. Losing the data of their clients would bring them back to square one, reckoning the hard work of all these years.
Why Cybersecurity Experts Matter
A cybersecurity expert is an antidote to a cyber criminal or a hacker. Cyber criminals try to find and attack government’s official sites, sites of armed forces organizations and other business organizations. They are the ones who stop sensitive information from getting leaked. In an organization cybersecurity expert matters a lot because he is the one who identifies complex issues and resolve them helping business to keep running smoothly. Whenever there is an attack cybersecurity expert responds to that incident instantly, analyzes the attack, diagnoses the malware and tries everything possible to stop it. He stays updated with the current viruses and attack to be prepared and strategize things incase of any emergency.
Roles and Responsibilities
A cybersecurity expert plays many roles within an organization. He is a leader who tells employees how to keep check and balance of different processes. He is the one who identifies their mistakes regarding the cybersecurity, rectifies them and makes them understand the security so that they don’t make these mistakes again in future. There are many responsibilities of a cybersecurity expert which he already knows when applying for this post in an organization. If we talk about roles, there are a lot. We’re discussing some here.
Security Analyst
The first thing a cybersecurity expert does, he checks out the existing security plan and system and looks for all the vulnerabilities and loopholes in it. He analyzes things kike software, hardware and gives suitable suggestions about the changes that are needed to be done to make the security intact. This is the most important part when he starts his job.
Security Developer
Another responsibility of a cybersecurity expert is to develop a security plan for company. He has already analyzed everything about the existing one. So, he develops cybersecurity system according to the needs. Every company needs a different type of security plan. Its hardware and software can differ as the requirements change. He might be building the system himself or he may lead a team, designing the security system.
Security Administrator
He installs the developed security system and applies all the settings to it. He looks for the changes or upgrade that is needed. Being the administrator he gets reported about everything related to the system and security. He is responsible and answerable to the company’s management.
Cryptanalyst
He analyzes the malware and viruses. He encrypts the information behind this malicious stuff to know its purpose. This helps in building a stronger security program for the system.
Intrusion Detection Specialist
In an organization, monitoring all the networks and applications is one of the key role of a cybersecurity expert. He keeps everything in checkto find out instantly when intrusion happens. He identifies the intrusion and finds that if any damage has been done by that.
Primary responsibilities that a cybersecurity expert needs to do are following.
- He should be well qualified for the job. There are best information security courses and certifications available as well to be more compact in cybersecurity.
- He needs to understand the type of information he needs to protect. After knowing the information he will easily determine the type of security required.
- He is there to protect sensitive information from getting accessed by unauthorized person. For that he needs to identify the potential threats and design strategies according to that. He needs to keep an eye on the system for any kind of unusual activities.
- He needs to test his own security plans every now and then by breaking into it to check for any weaknesses in the security. Acting like a hacker himself and trying to access information being an unauthorized person brings out a lot about the defensive system.
- An expert is needed to keep developing new strategies for the system that should be in multi layer. That obviously will guard it in a much better way.
- He should be the one granting permissions to every employee of company. This will help him n keep the check on who and who entered the facility.
- There should be a practice to run diagnostics on every information change to check for any unnoticed breach.
- He should always be updated with the new way of intrusion. This will help him in updating the security system accordingly.
Certifications for Cybersecurity Experts
No one can become a cyber security expert by just doing graduation or masters in IT. If someone wants to pursue their career in cybersecurity, they need to have certifications related to cybersecurity. The one that is usually preferred by companies when hiring is CompTIA security+. It is an entry level certification which makes your knowledge about cybersecurity much more compact. One can take CompTIA security plus online training as well that is a convenient effective option for candidates. There are a lot more certifications available like CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker), CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional) and CISA (Certified Information Security Auditor).
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