Did you know big tech companies hand out big cheques to Bug Bounties? Did you know that they have an entire program where they offer these bug bounties handsome amounts to find bugs in the websites or system solutions of their company? Google awarded $36,000 to a teenager for finding a security flaw that allowed this guy to make changes to the internal systems of the company. Well, in all honesty, I personally wasn’t aware that this activity is called a Bug Bounty Program. Most of the top-notch tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and GitHub among others keep cybersecurity at the top of the priority list and go out of their way to ensure their systems are safe to use by customers as well as them as a company.
The cybersecurity market is expected to grow to be a USD 248.6 billion industry within the next two years, i.e., by 2023, as per a report by Marketsandmarkets. This is probably because only 5% of the folders within companies are protected properly on an average, as stated by Varonis and an alarming rate of 68% business leaders believe that the risks to their cybersecurity are increasing. With so many vulnerabilities to highly confidential personal and professional data, there has been an increase witnessed in the demand for cybersecurity engineers, who will create systems and solutions to protect enterprises and their stakeholders from risk anomalies and cybersecurity threats. But how beneficial is it to have a career in the cybersecurity engineering field? Let’s discuss more about it.
1. Start with the fundamentals, go on to acquiring skills from multiple disciplines – When someone mentions the term cybersecurity, our first instinct is to think of a hacker in a hoodie who rigorously works on a computer, but in reality, cybersecurity engineering has much more to it. Within this field, a person can start by knowing fundamental procedures and functionalities and make their way up by acquiring skills from multiple disciplines such as management, communications, Law and Order, authority, etc. Cybersecurity engineering requires having an eye for the details, for example, by inserting a single quote you can identify if an application is vulnerable to SQL injection, and if it is, it means anybody with basic knowledge of query languages can get access to your data.
2. You will be responsible for making highly significant decisions – A cybersecurity engineer has to make decisions of greater significance every day. Just because an organization has taken measures to protect the systems of the company, that doesn’t mean their firm is immune to cyber-attacks. Recently, it was found that Bluetooth Classic is actually in a vulnerable state where attackers can masquerade as a trusted endpoint by posing as a rogue device and capture sensitive data. Now, a cybersecurity engineer will be responsible for making a high-risk decision of whether to wait till they develop a safe upgraded version or strip down the current one.
3. Dynamic days ranging from hardware efficiency to software debugging – As a cybersecurity engineer, one thing is given that you won’t have monotonous days where you perform the exact same task every time you get a project. Every project brings with it a new adventure which you can take. Somedays you will spend hours working on a hardware device that just would show compatibility and adaptability, and other days you will debug a software within minutes and have the entire day to yourself. It never gets boring. You never know what the next software testing or hardware implementation will bring with it to the table.
4. Opportunity to learn new tech modules frequently – Remember the time when the hacktivist entity Anonymous hacked the live telecast of a news channel and communicated their agenda? Well, they have returned and now they have access to sensitive records of the officials. This shows the data can be under attack through different channels and forms every time. This is what gives the cybersecurity engineers opportunities to learn different ways to combat these challenges and find a shield to these attacks. They can learn about the latest and upcoming modules that are trending in the industry and be updated with the sector standards.
5. Your job will have real-life impacts – Be it debugging applications or developing applications in response to adware and ransomware or even providing a security blanket to the organization or the government, cybersecurity engineers do the work that has impacts on the real lives of the people. They protect the government data, consumer data, professional data, personal data and also provide protection to your resources. Be rest assured that your work will hold value.
Cybersecurity engineering as a career has major benefits ranging from job dynamics to career growth to rewarding roles. It is a booming sector and has several interesting streams to choose from. It extends beyond the traditional IT roles and is flourishing into a highly-reputed sector.
