Sponsored by Baldwin Wallace University: Cultivating the next generation of cybersecurity professionals

Responding to reported cyber attacks

Cyber ​​security is a business imperative that is as important to an organization’s short- and long-term sustainability as it is to its financial and legal well-being. The scope and sophistication of cyber security threats continue to grow. Malware and viruses remain a concern, as do new types of attacks, from hackers injecting malicious code into software or supply chain infiltrations to compromising critical IT infrastructure and phishing campaigns targeting employees. According to Gartner research published in early 2022, 88% of boards consider cybersecurity a business risk, not just a technical IT issue. About 13% of boards have established separate cybersecurity committees overseen by a dedicated director. Below are some other trends in the modern cybersecurity landscape.

DEMAND FOR CYBERSECURITY AND EARNINGS POTENTIAL ARE GROWING

Currently, more than one million professionals are members of the cybersecurity workforce in the US. However, there are also a significantly large number of job openings in the field—over 714,500, a sign of the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals.

States like California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas are considered “hot spots” for cybersecurity jobs, with roughly 25,000 to 83,000 job openings. As the demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to grow, so does the money they’ll make. For example, federal cybersecurity workers can earn as much as $255,800 a year. Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the annual average salary for information security analysts was $107,580 in 2020, nearly double the average for all U.S. occupations combined.

In addition, between 2020 and 2030, employment of information security analysts is projected to increase by 33%, which is faster than the average for any occupation, according to the BLS. And, on a global basis, the total aggregate of unfilled cybersecurity jobs grew 350% from 2013 to 2021, as 3.5 million positions were available last year, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

INDUSTRIES ARE HIRING CYBERSECURITY EXPERTS

To meet the ever-growing demand for cybersecurity professionals—for example, the Information Systems Security Certification Consortium predicts that the global cybersecurity workforce will need to grow by 89%—a wide range of industries are likely to be hiring in the near future, such as are as follows:

Banking and Finance: Banks, along with the financial industry as a whole, are prime targets for identity theft, leading to the need for an increased cybersecurity workforce.

Federal Government: Federal cybersecurity workers earn up to $255,800 each year, as cyberattacks on classified information remain a significant problem for the federal government.

Retail: Much like the banking and finance industry, the retail industry remains a popular target for identity theft.

technology: As IT security at tech companies also remains under pressure, states like California and Florida are expected to be key hotspots for cybersecurity hires.

TOP JOBS FOR CYBER SECURITY PROFESSIONALS

As professionals prepare for the next chapter of their cybersecurity careers or enter the field for the first time after graduating, they have a wide variety of jobs to apply for, according to the University of St. Thomas and TechRepublic:

• Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
• Cyber ​​security analyst, architect, consultant, engineer and project manager
• Ethical hacker
• Incident Response Coordinator
• Information security manager
• Network Architect
• Penetration tester
• Security analyst, architect, awareness trainer and engineer
• System administrator
• Vulnerability management specialist

SOURCES: Bloomberg, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CyberSeek, Fortune, University of St. Thomas, TechRepublic, University of Tulsa

Compiled by Chris Lewis, Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland

Click to view the printed PDF HERE.