October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. If you’re curious about the cybersecurity field and how it can affect your job or provide new opportunities within your career, check out our list of frequently asked questions.
What is Cybersecurity?
According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), cybersecurity is the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
Why is Cybersecurity Important?
Cybersecurity and other related threats affect more than just business–they threaten national security. Businesses and government agencies are constantly looking for cybersecurity professionals to protect their systems and infrastructure from such threats. As hackers’ techniques become more sophisticated, businesses need to be more agile than ever to protect their data, employees, and customers from harm.
What Are Some Common Cybersecurity Threats?
Common threats include phishing attacks, where a hacker tricks someone into disclosing personal information, such as personal identification numbers or financial information, or encouraging a user to click on malicious links or provide entry into their company’s IT system. Many phishing attacks happen over email, but hackers use phone calls or voice impersonation software to reach their victims, too.
Hackers also use ransomware to hold an organization’s data hostage by blocking access to it or threatening to disclose personal information if a dollar amount is not paid. According to Thomson Reuters, the average ransomware demand is now $200,000 to $300,000, with some demands exceeding $10 million.
Malware is a constant threat in which malicious software is installed on a user’s device to steal important information. Users can avoid malware by refusing to click on pop-up ads, using strong passwords, and not opening unfamiliar email attachments.
With mobile security attacks, a user downloads a “fake” app that attempts to then steal personal information from their device.
How Does Cybersecurity Affect the Workplace?
Cyber attacks can threaten businesses’ ability to operate and serve their customers. While people often think of financial institutions or credit card providers as typical hacking victims, these attacks can also affect places like healthcare facilities, where patients’ personal information is at stake. Attackers can also interfere with systems that can threaten a patient’s livelihood.
“We never thought that the healthcare side of things would be attacked,” says Tony Varghese, an instructor in the Master of Science in cybersecurity degree at the Universities of Wisconsin. “I guess we assumed that people would be good. But then we’re finding out that, no, a lot of people don’t care. They’re going to attack anything that’s vulnerable.”
These threats can easily shut down a business or organization’s operations if threat actors are able to breach security or steal important business data, underlining the growing need for cybersecurity professionals.
How Can Getting a Cybersecurity Degree Help Me in My Career?
To combat cyberattacks and mitigate their effects, organizations and businesses across industries are upping their game to seek out cybersecurity professionals who know how to stay ahead of threats and keep private information out of the wrong hands.
Because cybersecurity professionals are in such great demand, the career outlook for cybersecurity roles predicts stable jobs and good salaries. Nationally, US News and World Report ranks information security analyst as #2 in Best Technology Jobs, #5 in Best STEM Jobs, and #5 in Best Jobs overall. The rush to hire cybersecurity professionals is seen at a local level, too, with significant growth anticipated in Wisconsin.
According to CyberSeek, a cybersecurity specialist can expect to earn an average salary of $106,265, and a cybersecurity manager can expect to earn an average of $128,665.
The need for cybersecurity professionals isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of job openings for Information Security Analysts is expected to increase by 33% through 2032, with about 17,300 openings projected each year, on average.
What Do Employers Look For When Hiring Cybersecurity Professionals?
Employers are looking for cybersecurity professionals who can:
- Analyze and resolve security issues in networks and computer systems to secure an IT infrastructure
- Design, develop, test, and evaluate secure software
- Develop policies and procedures to manage enterprise security risks
- Evaluate and communicate the human role in security systems with an emphasis on ethics, social engineering, vulnerabilities, and training
- Interpret and forensically investigate security incidents.
Along with hard skills like computer science, operating systems, auditing, and agile methodology, hiring managers also want a cybersecurity leader who understands the human implications behind cyber threats.
According to Security Magazine, human error (such as the unintended release of personal information or sending the wrong information to the wrong person) poses cybersecurity challenges for 80 percent of businesses. Hard skills alone cannot mitigate these challenges—successful cybersecurity professionals must also be equipped with non-technical skills that allow them to approach situations from both a tactical and human angle.
Employers also want workers who have non-technical skills like management, communication, the ability to troubleshoot, planning, and a desire to innovate.
How Can I Become a Cybersecurity Professional?
Whether or not you have a technical background or experience working with IT or computer systems, a career in cybersecurity is possible with the right training. The 100% online University of Wisconsin Master of Science in Cybersecurity will provide you with skills that meet current market demands. The program’s core curriculum addresses the fundamentals of cybersecurity, featuring courses in security planning, risk assessment, and communication.
Tyler Wester, an embedded software engineer in product security, is working to complete his master’s in cybersecurity while working full-time and raising three children. Because the program is online, Tyler is able to complete coursework when it is convenient for him.
“The program helped me get up to speed quickly on a baseline cybersecurity landscape and dive into all these different focuses,” he says. “And I think the courses are well planned out and diverse in the sense that you have planning and implementation, cryptography, risk management, and all these different things that encompass all of cybersecurity that can then be implemented in different organizations and different focuses. My focus is product security, which is much more granular than if you’re doing this for work like a whole organization.”
To learn more, check out the program’s curriculum or connect with a helpful enrollment adviser at 608-800-6762 or learn@uwex.edu.