Candidates can accrue experience in other cybersecurity roles or through internships while still pursuing their degrees to meet this requirement. Information security requires employees to possess hard skills, such as programming languages, and engage in how to become a security specialist complex technological solutions. Security specialists should begin by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity or a related area, such as computer science. Applicants should explore which certifications match their skills and desired career path.
Professional certification, such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation, can boost a candidate’s prospects for employment and advancement. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.
Considering a new exciting career as an Cybersecurity Specialist?
With every passing year, the number of businesses migrating to the cloud increases — and in turn, the number of cyberattacks increases. IT security specialists are responsible for their organization’s computer-related security, ensuring company data remains secure and protected against cyberattacks. In addition to creating structures to protect interconnected devices, professionals in this sector safeguard sensitive assets for applications and data. At the app level, infrastructure security professionals develop and deploy effective databases to prevent access by bad actors. For data, this field protects information by building structures for backups and encryption. Companies are listing more cybersecurity jobs and paying higher salaries than ever because it is difficult to find strong, qualified talent in this industry.
- To that end, we have built a network of industry professionals across higher education to review our content and ensure we are providing the most helpful information to our readers.
- Strayer University’s online technology degrees provide real-world skills and IT certifications to achieve your career goals.
- With these credentials, security professionals validate and even improve their ability to implement best practices as security specialists, paving the way to more expertise and job opportunities.
- Integrity Network members typically work full time in their industry profession and review content for CyberDegrees.org as a side project.
- Project+ gives technical and non-technical professionals the basic concepts to successfully manage small- to medium-sized projects.
- And while it’s important to have fluency in programming languages and experience with UNIX-, Linux-, and Windows-based systems, it’s even more important to have a bachelor’s degree to be qualified for this job.
Top positions in cybersecurity include security auditor, security software developer, security manager, and security architect. The demand for security specialists who can develop effective cybersecurity solutions continues to grow. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), ransomware attacks occur about every 11 seconds in 2021, up from every 39 seconds in 2019. With the amount of data being stored and communicated through computer systems and networks, as well as the advancement and popularity of the cloud, businesses must work to keep information secure.
Related Careers
In addition to connecting with your coworkers, consider joining a professional organization. Validate skills in various cybersecurity areas, including offensive operations, cyber defense, cloud security, industrial control systems and more. CompTIA certifications establish a baseline foundation of skills that you can build upon with other vendor or technology-specific certifications. Project+ gives technical and non-technical professionals the basic concepts to successfully manage small- to medium-sized projects. There are improvements to Messages, including body shape customization in your Memoji, stickers to add to messages as reactions, and security improvements to protect against spyware. Typing messages, or anything else, is updated so you can turn off predictions inline, although personally I love that feature.