Are you looking for an exciting new career path? Cybersecurity is an industry fast on the rise to combat the growing threat of cybercrime, and it is a field that is appealing to many people with a passion for tech (and even those without). Cybersecurity can certainly be a great area to get into whether you are embarking on your first career journey or looking to make a switch from a relevant field, but as with any industry, there are a few things that you should be aware of first that will hopefully help you to know what to expect and hit the ground running.

Qualifications Are Key

You may be able to find some work without a relevant degree, but in order to find success in this industry, you will need an online cyber security degree with a masters being a great option. An online cyber security degree will teach you the skills and knowledge required to protect businesses and individuals against modern threats, plus an online cyber security degree can also prepare you for roles in leadership in this field. An online cyber security degree can also be taken entirely online, so it can be easier to work or maintain your current commitments, such as childcare, while you study for your online cyber security degree.

Jobs Are in Demand

There are many reasons people decide to switch careers, but one of the main reasons that many people are reconsidering their careers and looking to make the switch to cyber security is that cyber security is a field that is very heavily in demand. There has been a shortage in the field for a number of years, but the sharp increase in attacks (especially during COVID-19) has created an even stronger need for cyber security professionals. It is said that the global gap is around 3.12 million positions, and this ranges from entry-level analysts all the way through to executive-level leaders. Therefore, now is certainly a good time to consider an online cyber security degree and to help plug the shortage in the field.

Earning Potential is High

Another reason why so many people are eyeing up a career in this field is that the earning potential is significant. Payscale reports that the average salary for a cybersecurity analyst is $76,603 per year, but there is the potential to earn much more than this with specialist roles and depending on where you work. Salary is always an important factor when pursuing a career, and cybersecurity has good entry-level salaries with very high ceilings, so it can certainly be a smart move to make financially speaking.

Job Security is Strong

With such a big shortage all over the globe, you can rest assured knowing that you have strong job security with a role in cybersecurity. Once you have earned an online cyber security degree, you should be able to find work in most places, particularly if you have a masters degree. In addition to having strong job security (a major plus in today’s day and age), this also gives you the freedom and flexibility to move around if you wish – this is furthered by the fact that a lot of cybersecurity work can be done remotely.

Cybersecurity is a Broad Field

These days, cybersecurity is an incredibly broad field, and there are many different places to work and roles to fill. Cybersecurity was once seen mainly for government departments and other large institutions, but these days cybersecurity is mainstream and required in just about every aspect of life. Businesses of all sizes and in all industries, charities, non-profits, and individuals all need protecting online, particularly with cybercrime constantly evolving and developing and greatly accelerated due to COVID-19. This means that there are many different ways to make a living in cybersecurity, such as working as part of a cybersecurity firm, working with many different clients, working in any industry and providing cybersecurity for a single business, or working as a freelance specialist.

It is Constantly Changing

One of the major challenges of a career in this field is that it is constantly changing. An online cyber security degree is vital for teaching you how to protect against digital attacks, but it is difficult when these attacks are constantly changing, and new tactics are being used. This means that there is ongoing learning that you must be committed to with work in this field, so you will need to make the effort to stay current. There are lots of different ways to do this, such as:

• Ongoing training and qualifications
• Reading blogs
• Listening to podcasts
• Joining online communities
• Attending industry events
• Reading industry publications
• Social media

The Work is Incredibly Important

One of the main benefits of a career in cybersecurity is that it is incredibly important work. There have been many high-profile attacks on major institutions worldwide in recent times that can have very real and severe impacts not just on individual organizations, but cybersecurity is now something that every person and business needs. This means that you are making a real difference with your work no matter where you are working and making the world a safer place for people. If you work for a cybersecurity agency, you might work on some major cases and handle sensitive data, which can be a real thrill and one of the major perks of the job.

It is More Stressful Than Other Careers

Although it can be thrilling, it is also important to note that a career in cybersecurity is more stressful than most. This is because the work is so important, and any successful attacks could be devastating for a business or individual, so you will want to do all that you can to prevent attacks from being successful. On top of this, the work can be demanding, you may end up working at all hours of the night, and the fact that it is constantly changing can add to the stress. This means that cybersecurity professionals need to be able to manage their stress, work in high-pressure situations and find ways to de-stress and relax when they are not working.

It Can Interfere With Your Personal Life

Leading on from this point, this is not the right industry for you if you want to work 9-5 and simply switch off at the end of the day. Due to the serious nature of the work, you may be required to work all kinds of hours and often be on call, which means that it can interfere with your personal life (not to mention the stress you can bring home with you). This is an area that many struggle with, but the key is to try and make the most out of your free time and to find ways to disconnect from work when you are able to.

Communication Skills Are Essential

There is a misconception when it comes to cybersecurity and even IT as a whole that you do not need good communication skills to succeed. While you will spend a lot of time working unsupervised sitting in front of a computer (and often working remotely), you will also spend a lot of time working as a team, communicating with clients, and presenting to groups. This means that you must possess excellent communication skills to clearly explain your work to those that might not have strong IT and tech understanding and build and maintain trust. For those that want to advance to leadership positions, this will be hugely important and an area that will require work – an online cyber security degree can also help with this.

You Need to Create a Large Professional Network

As with any industry, having a large professional network will always prove useful, particularly for those who want to reach the top. While there are many gaps to fill right now, there is also a surge to fill positions, so it could be hard to climb the ladder in the coming years. It will be easier, and you will find more opportunities when you have cultivated a large professional network and developed a positive reputation. You should be networking both online and offline and make sure that you are making an effort to maintain professional relationships over time (the internet can be a great way to do this).

Critical Thinking Skills Are Key

Cybersecurity is, essentially, all about problem-solving, and this is difficult when you are facing new and different challenges each day. This is why it is so important to have critical thinking skills, which would allow you to think outside the box and find the best and most efficient solution to the problems when they arise (you must also be able to act quickly). It is true that some people seem to possess critical thinking skills naturally, but you can also develop these yourself with training, and this could make a huge difference to your performance and career potential in cybersecurity.

You Will Make Mistakes

Mistakes are inevitable when working in a high-pressure, high-demand industry and facing constantly changing threats. Hopefully, these mistakes will never be too severe, but you must make sure that you do not let them knock you back and affect your confidence. Every top cyber professional will have made mistakes, but the difference is that they will take a moment to learn from these mistakes without dwelling on them and use them to become a better cybersecurity professional.

You Should Build a Portfolio

In order to advance your career, you will need to be able to show what you have done and why you are the right person for the job (much like any job). One of the best ways that you can do this in a cybersecurity field is to build a portfolio over the course of your career, which outlines the work that you have done and the challenges that you have overcome. An online portfolio is a good idea and can include further information on your career along with references from previous employers and clients that you have worked with.

Days Are Different

Another appealing factor for a career in cybersecurity is that no two days are the same. While this certainly can make it stressful and unpredictable, many cybersecurity professionals enjoy the fact that their work is never the same and that they will be facing new challenges and having new experiences each day. This means that you need to have some flexibility with your work; you need to be prepared each and every day and have a strong work ethic so that you can work to a high standard at all times.

You Need Strong Understanding Outside of Cybersecurity

You will obviously need to be a cybersecurity specialist and have an online cyber security degree, but it is also important to see the bigger picture and have a greater understanding in order to find success. The best cybersecurity professionals are the ones that have a strong understanding of both tech and IT in general, as well as understand business. The clients that you are working with will simply want protection from the latest threats and for the protection to not interfere with their work, so you need to understand the business, their goals, and how they operate so that you can find the best solutions and both keep them happy and well protected.

As you can see, there is a lot to know about a career in cybersecurity with benefits and drawbacks, much like any other field. Individuals who desire to get a job yet don’t have any experience in cybersecurity can check out Jooble. On Jooble, you’ll find many nice job opportunities in cybersecurity with no experience.
Now is certainly a good time to embark on a career in this field, and it can be incredibly rewarding, but it is also hugely demanding and not a role for someone that wants a simple job that they can disconnect from. Those who enjoy their work often see it as an important part of their life and revel in the fact that they get to protect both people and businesses from malicious threats from criminals around the world.

Big data security breaches are no longer the fictitious thoughts of the ester years. Hackers whether solitary or organized continue to wreak havoc with complex spear phishing or drive-by attacks on institutions with big sets of data to secure. That artificial intelligence and machine learning can now be used to further complicate attacks. This makes it inevitable for enterprises with big data to take systems security even more seriously.

To avoid the enormous cost rising out of a data breach and the reputation loss that an institution has to deal with, it becomes paramount to look for ways of preventing big data from honed breaches. Compounding the scenario is the fact that many firms offering security solutions are relying on the same algorithms that hackers use to perpetrate an attack. But what to do?

Establish a security-focused attitude

Companies with big data sets under their care need to know that breachers are always looking for better ways to gain access. As such, it’s important that you have the right people onboard. The superb data security policies you want to invest in will be in vain, if the personnel is unwilling to stick to them. Before you invest mysql backup protocols and practices, make sure that your staffs are dedicated to data and information safety.

Limit access to critical data

The big data sets that a company is entrusted with are the most critical assets. When everyone on board acknowledges the cost of a data breach, it becomes unanimous that limits and restrictions need to be in place. Not every staffer has to have access to your most valuable data. By whittling down the number of employees who can accidentally open a harmful link, you consolidate your data the more.

Reduce data storage locations

Big data chunks spread across different locations open up the possibility of exposure. The more managed data centres you have, the higher the chances that information will slip into the wrong hands. A robust system will have less data storage locations and devices. If your data is stored in a centralized cloud based location with water tight restrictions, encryption and strict access control, you can breathe knowing breachers won’t be getting to your prised data soon. Remember, it’s important to keep monitoring since hackers keep inventing ways of getting through.

Verify third-party vendor compliance

If your enterprise deals with several third-party vendors, it’s crucial to question their allegiance to data security. A simple case of unlawful entry or unauthorized data access can lead to a big breach. If a vendor has access to your crucial data, you need to demand their compliance to privacy laws and privileges.

Employee security awareness training

In many firms, employees are the weakest links in the data security context. Unaware, an employee can click on a suspicious links or email. The results can be devastating. Don’t put your staff through one cyber security class and think it’s enough. It should be a continuous exercise, if you expect to counter the ever witty alternatives that hackers are using.

Involve white hat hackers

Ethical hackers can provide an enterprise with the immunity that a company needs. White hat hackers have the knowledge to test systems using penetration tests. This helps a firm to point out vulnerabilities that breachers can exploit. Additionally, you can resort to security tightening measures such as configuring the mainframes for optimum security and use.

Intrusion, detection and prevention applications

One combination that big data endowed firms can employ is the intrusion, detection and prevention strategy. Your organization will be able to monitor system activity, configuration and still assess the integrity of mission critical systems. Remember, it’s wise to perform proactive vulnerability assessments in real-time.

Marketing is something that every growing business and brand has to invest in. You will seldom find that in this day and age, a brand will become a household name without any marketing efforts. Although virality does play a role in those who do, this isn’t something that businesses can depend on. For this reason, marketing has become something that companies are trying to master as it’s the primary way of improving their bottom line. However, marketing takes on a different face for each brand, so figuring out what works best for you is key. Below you’ll find five ways that you can improve your marketing efforts and get better results.

1.) Carry Out an Audit

Before carrying out any vigorous marketing activities, you should think about doing a marketing audit. In case you don’t know what a marketing audit is, it’s an in-depth analysis of your marketing activities, goals, and objectives. By conducting one, you’ll be able to identify areas that are ineffective as well as realign your activities with your goals. In addition to this, it’s a chance to open yourself up to new ideas and strategies.

2.) Invest More Money

Although it is still possible to leverage organic traffic, if you want to see quicker and more significant results, spending money is a necessity. Create a paid ads budget that will give you a decent return on investment.

If you don’t have the money to invest in paid ads, you should be thinking about getting an additional stream of income to support your business and help manage your personal expenses.

There are endless ways to make money working from home,whether it be by becoming a vlogger, dropshipping, or publishing an eBook.

3.) Be Open to Experimenting

Aside from the mentioned, being open to experimenting could also go a long way. As mentioned earlier, after doing an audit, you’ll likely discover new ideas that you can try implementing. Marketing is about trying to mold your brand’s perception in the eyes of your audience as well as converting them to loyal customers. This often demands creative thinking as well as out of the ordinary strategies.

4.) Use Your Data

If you’re doing content marketing solution, you should have data that is being used to inform your decisions. Without data, you can liken your marketing attempts to trying to capture your target in the dark. Use existing data alongside data that you collect and decide how best to communicate with your audience. Big data, can be used to create real-time personalization to buyers and identify the type of content that moves buyers down the sales funnel.

5.) Focus on Quality

The last tip for improving your marketing efforts as a business or brand is to focus on quality. When creating content, whether it’s for social media, blog posts or ads, ensure that its well-thought-out. You want content that coverts as opposed to just putting out information that only adds to the existing noise online. Quality content adds value to its audience and has a clear-cut purpose.

Technology is in a state of flux and will continue to have a great impact on the future of businesses and the way that we live. However, as recent developments in technology shows, there are some elements of emerging technology that will help to change the future of tech and its surrounding industries drastically. This article covers some of the most important tech developments and how they will affect the future.

• Miniaturization

The miniaturization of devices will become a dominant factor in the potential of upcoming electronics, and this is mainly enabled by the development of PCBs. PCBs are currently being designed to become miniaturized, which will influence a business’s ability to create wearable tech such as watches and flexible displays. All of these rely on developments in PCBs to ensure that their circuits can be made flexible and that their technology remains workable. If you are looking for software that can help you to design your PCBs, PCB design largely comes down to low-priced professional PCB software such as Altium’s CircuitStudio. These allow you to create PCBs for professional layouts, ensuring that you have the expert tools needed for any PCB design.

• Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence will also affect the future of technology. Artificial Intelligence will allow programs to be run solely by machines to perform time-consuming tasks and improve the accuracy of processes. AI can be used for many purposes, and these include the increasing of sales, detecting fraud, better security measures, and even the implementation of tools. Not only this, but AI chatbots and virtual assistants can help businesses to interact with customers without the necessary personnel, and large companies such as Amazon have already started using AI for their delivery practices, as well as their algorithms and in their voice assistant, Alexa.

• AR and VR

AR and VR are not just for entertainment experiences, and although VR gadgets are great to play with, they can also have a vast effect on other industries. For instance, manufacturing and engineering companies can use VR and AR to immerse themselves within an experience and apply these elements to real life. This is perfect for aspects such as fixing issues with production and assembly lines, testing products and ensuring that their processes will become more accurate. AR and VR will also start to have benefits to other business aspects such as marketing, where companies can provide consumers with realistic assimilations of their product and how they might use it.

• Automation

Soon, you may be more likely to work alongside a robot than a human as automation starts to take over in workplaces. From manufacturing to delivery companies to food chains, automation may become a key prospect to their industries. These automated services will be able to perform detailed and difficult duties accurately, such as assembling products, which will reduce the need for a human workforce.

While the future is still unknown, emerging technologies give us an astute prediction of the types of tech we may see in the future. This then also give us an idea of their effect that this will have on our lives and on local and national businesses.