Today’s economy runs on data. The security of data is everything in the current scenario. With global businesses becoming an online platform or shifting their entire workloads and data to the cloud platform, there is an increased reliance on the Cybersecurity domain to offer the security to maintain the security of the systems and environment within an organization.
Here we will discuss the scope of Cybersecurity professionals in the upcoming future. Check out this Cyber security program to help you become a certified Cybersecurity professional.
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What is Cybersecurity?
Before we discuss the scope of Cybersecurity professionals, it’s imperative that we understand what exactly Cybersecurity is. Simply put, Cybersecurity is all about securing systems, devices, servers, and all the other digital components from illegal activities and security or data breaches.
Penetration of the Internet in this century has helped many businesses become online, and that has directly increased the exposure of data and other platforms of the organization to these cybercriminals. Additionally, today personal data is also at risk of being leaked. Every company, organization, institution, business, government, and individual faces this risk of getting hacked.
Increasing the effort on Cybersecurity strategy simply means that now a hacker or cybercriminal will find it difficult to penetrate a platform because a strong firewall, data encryption, and multiple layers of security are difficult to break into.
Different types of Cybersecurity domain
Now is the time to discuss the different types of Cybersecurity domains to master or advance one’s career path. Here is a small list of popular types of Cybersecurity domains that you can pursue.
Network Security
It deals with protecting internal network infrastructure, for example, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for every employee.
Application Security
It dwells around protecting an application from its initial phases. During its development phase, it is its job to protect the application using hardware and software methods.
Critical Infrastructure Security
Generally, this field is associated with application in water purification systems or electricity grids that contain digital with physical systems.
Information Security
This domain deals with securing data, whether online or offline. It’s also known as InfoSec and deals with protecting data from unauthorized access, manipulation, alteration, etc.
Cloud Security
As the name suggests, it deals with securing data stored in cloud platforms. You can use different tools in preventing data corruption or other illegal alterations in data.
Data Loss Prevention
This Cybersecurity domain deals with various processes and policies that help in preventing data loss. It includes network permissions and data storage policies.
Different types of Cyber-threats
There are millions of Cyber-threats that are affecting computer systems globally. We can put all these different threats into three categories and they are:
Attacks on Confidentiality
These are forms of attacks targeted toward confidential information like financial information, bank, and credit card credentials.
Attacks on Integrity
These attacks are performed to damage the reputation of an individual, company, enterprise, or business. The leaked data is not meant to be shared publicly and it has serious implications in the future.
Attacks on Availability
These Cyber-attacks revolve around blocking access to a service, app, platform, website, or file unless you pay off their demand.
We have categorized all different forms of attacks into three separate categories, now we will briefly mention the most popular Cyber-attacks that are affecting globally:
Social Engineering
It involves playing psychological games and enticing individuals into giving away their sensitive data. The most common example is Phishing, wherein you will receive legit-looking emails asking for personal information.
Malware
Malware or Malicious Software is software that is capable of affecting or altering the normal functions of your computer or device. The intent of a Malware attack is to damage your device and steal data. Some common examples are Viruses, Worms, Spyware, etc.
Ransomware
It’s a Malware variant, that is designed to extort ransom from you in exchange for stolen personal data. The best example is Crypto-malware and scareware.
Eligibility criteria to become a Cybersecurity professional
Most Cyber Security jobs require just a minimum graduation degree as the minimum eligibility criteria to become a Cybersecurity professional. It’s beneficial if you earn an educational degree in the field of IT, Computer Science, etc.
Skills required to become a Cybersecurity professional
The different roles within the Cybersecurity domain require a different set of skills. But we can summarize a basic set of skills that will help you in pursuing a Cybersecurity career.
Technical skills: Python, IoT, Android, Cryptography, Network Services, Windows Server. (Master any one field out of the mentioned one).
Soft Skills: Communication and Interpersonal Skills, Problem Solving Skills, Analytical thinking, etc.
Scope of Cybersecurity as a career
The NASSCOM or National Association of Software and Services Companies has estimated that India will need 1 million Cybersecurity professionals by the end of 2020 to tackle the rising number of Cybersecurity threats. This was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic, workplaces shifted to online platforms and that has pushed the bar even higher and increased the data exposure. Now the estimate will be even higher to secure the data stored offline or online.
The scope of Cybersecurity professionals is like an evergreen scenario. With the introduction of each new technology, new vulnerabilities pop up and new threats surface.
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