There’s quite a few names for it these days – IT security, cyber security and even the Orwellian infosec – but whatever you call it, it’s one of the biggest growth markets in both the recruitment world and the IT world, and for very good reason…
A decade ago, if you were a top-notch WordPress developer or an innovative web designer with a handle on UI and UX you were in huge demand. On a number of levels those guys still are, but today the hottest IT jobs are in cyber-security and the clamour for the hottest talent is akin to our collective rush into the cloud five years ago.
The top dog at a big global firm can expect something like £300,000. A Director of Security or Lead Software Security Engineer can command in the region of £150,000 or more and even entry-level roles at decent-sized firms are shelling out upwards of £60,000 to secure the top talent.
However, according to Michael Brown, CEO of Symantec, ‘the demand for the cyber security workforce is expected to rise to six million globally by 2019’ and ‘the growing (cyber security) market is expected to grow from $75 billion (in 2015) to $170 billion (by 2020)’. But, and this is a big BUT, there is also serious talk of a shortfall of around 1.5m jobs. The threats are moving faster than the learning. Not a good thing.
The Birth of Cyber Security
Brad Kingsbury, the very first employee at Norton recalls a simpler time. ‘In the early days, there were not a lot of different ‘threats.’ The primary purpose of malware in those days was to make life miserable for the victim. Malware would delete the contents of your hard drive or make your computer unusable. And as the creator of this malware was a bored kid in Eastern Europe trying to impress his girlfriend, the threats were infrequent.’
Back then, very few businesses, organisations or even governments had little interest in encrypting data but as we got more and more connected into the online world, the threats escalated, as did the motivation of the baddies. Deleting a hard-drive wasn’t enough anymore. It scaled up to the corruption of your email contacts, pinging out messages that once clicked on, did the same to them and the domino effect was for some, catastrophic.
But once the internet started to be used as a medium for financial transaction, the really bad guys got involved and we’re not just talking about your common-or-garden thief. We’re talking about governments, state-sponsored ‘actors’, sophisticated organised crime gangs and that geeky kid in Computer Science who never said anything but always seemed to know what buttons to press…
Not Another Data Breach……
Barely a day goes by without reports of massive data breaches and as if you needed reminding, here are some of the worst culprits –
- 2013/4: Yahoo – 3bn user accounts
- 2016: Adult Friend Finder – 413m accounts
- 2014: eBay – 145m accounts
- 2017: Equifax – 148m accounts
- 2016: Uber – 57m users, 600,000 drivers
- 2014: JP Morgan Chase – 76m households, 7m small businesses
- 2011: Sony PlayStation – 77m accounts
- 2014: Home Depot – 56m customers
- 2013: Adobe – 38m user records
The (global) average cost of a cyber-breach now stands at around £2.48m. That’s why companies are now viewing cyber-security professionals as vital to the running of the business as a marketing or finance department.
What Can We Do To Stop It?
According to Stephen Zafarino, senior director of recruitment at Mondo, a niche IT, tech and digital marketing recruiter with offices all over the US, the most in-demand cyber-security jobs for 2018 are:
Penetration Testers The job of pen testers, also known as ‘ethical hackers’ is to go into your computer system, network, website or app and find the vulnerabilities and weak spots. In effect they try and hack your site, but the good kind of hacking, not the bad kind. They will detail the flaws in your system for a very pretty penny and hand over to the…
Cyber-Security Engineers who are predominantly serious techies that will fix the vulnerabilities and weak spots the pen testers uncover. They dive deep into the code to assess and remedy performance issues and weak spots and they are they guys who will create the corporate documents to ensure everyone in a business is delivering security best practice, overseen by…
CISOs. The Chief Information Security Officer is the oracle when it comes to cyber-security; long gone are the days of the network engineer or programmer doubling-up. These are genuine subject-matter experts, often with long and established careers in the infosec space or even cyber-crime detectives dragged kicking and screaming into the private sector for six times the salary and a company BMW.
The trouble is, as corporate digital security gets tighter, so the cyberbullies get more sophisticated. It’s a vicious circle with no end in sight but here at Koncise Solutions, we may have the answer.
Oh Really…?
Yes. Unsurprisingly, one of the most visited pages on our website is that of Cybereason. In their own words, they offer customers ‘the world’s most powerful cyber-security analytics platform’ about which you can read more here.
They –
- Help you confidently answer the question ‘are you under attack?’
- Defend against even the most advanced, malicious attacks
- Use military-grade technology which stops system breaches
- Offer real-time reporting and information on how to stop attacks
- Are exceptionally efficient and intuitive at data gathering
- Hunt across every endpoint in your network
If cyber-security is high on your list of priorities but you can’t afford the three hundred grand a year it will cost you to hire a CISO and the same again for infrastructure and staff, talk to us about Cybereason today. It may very well be the best call you make this year…
As always, if you need us for anything at all, email info@koncisesolutions.com or call +44 (0) 20 7078 0789 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Have a good week.
Koncise Solutions
Go Back