What is a Cyber Security Engineer?
Every day we become more and more dependant on the internet and mobile devices to get on with our daily lives. And every day that goes by, the question of security becomes more pressing. The result is that every minute that passes, more and more companies look toward hiring a Cyber Security Engineer. But what do they do?
The number one priority of a Cyber Security Engineer is that they must personally ensure and oversee network security at any give company or project. They must organise protection against any given threats, hackers, DDoS attempts or other more persistent threats. They spend their time testing and surveilling the systems that they set in place, continuously augmenting the security protocols. We’ve observed that in many companies, the Cyber Security Engineer will have different titles such as ‘Data Security Expert’ or ‘IT Security Specialist.’
What does a Cyber Security Engineer do?
What you will be doing on a day-to-day basis completely depends on what industry you’re working in and your company/project’s definition of the role. With that in mind, there are some things you can expect to be doing:
- On starting: a complete evaluation of the respective company’s most urgent security needs and writing up a ‘best practices’ guide for everyone
- Designing. implementation, maintenance and supervision of all security measures necessary to protect the said organisation, its data, networks and systems
- You will be responding to any and all security breaches
- Analyse security breaches and troubleshoot the systems that failed
- Execute penetration tests on systems you put in place
- Taking steps to augment the security around the organisation’s data
- Put yourself forward to be active in the change management process
- Handle the everyday admin tasks such as onboarding new team members and opening lines of communication between all departments
As a side note, many employers mix up the roles of a Cyber Security engineer and a Security Analyst. As you will know, the engineer designs and puts together the systems whereas the analyst is more worried about testing the system - or trying to break through.
It would be silly to deny there is an overlap though. Many Security Engineers will themselves enact stress tests in order to anticipate where weak spots might occur.
What jobs can a Cyber Security Engineer do?
This is a field where there are plenty of job opportunities. Generally, you should have no trouble finding work as a Cyber Security Engineer as the demand for the role is high across the board.
In fact, according to this report, Cyber Security Engineers top the list of most in-demand cybersecurity jobs. Not only that but it has this rank for the past three years running.
Other career paths you can follow might be that of a Network Security Engineer, Data Security Engineer, Information Systems Security Engineer or a number of other related careers.
What qualifications does a Cyber Security Engineer need?
The qualifications that an employer might require depend on the level at which you enter the profession. Generally, you’ll need:
- A bachelors in some form of Computer Science
- Two years of experience in related duties like incident detection or forensics
- Experience with firewall technologies and endpoint security
- Some knowledge in languages like C++, Node, Python, Ruby or Node
- Confident under pressure and comfortable working in a faced paced atmosphere
- A constantly-refreshed knowledge of state-of-the-art cybersecurity tech, trends and tactics
What soft skills does a Cyber Security Engineer need?
Soft skills are vital to a good Cybersecurity Engineer. For example, the ability to lead might be necessary when establishing new protocols at your company. The ability to communicate clearly will certainly be needed when spreading best practice amongst the staff and helping them to augment their personal technological security when operating on company networks.
This is a field where there are plenty of job opportunities. Generally, you should have no trouble finding.
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