Why Cyber Security? Well, in a nutshell, there is a massive shortage of people in this field, due to the explosion of Cyber Attacks over the last few years and it’s continuing to worsen. Cyber criminals, or Threat Actors, are moving at rapid pace, even faster than some of the best I.T and security teams around the world. They are highly co-ordinated and evading the best security money can buy. So good, you would almost think its an inside job…
You’ll see through various Cyber Security channels and networks that they are crying out for help. Being involved in cyber security related tasks at a previous employer, this opened up my interest to moving over and trying to support these professionals.
There is a massive problem here, globally, companies are attempting to recruit people that simply do not exist, at least from a skills and experience perspective. They have very little interest in taking on highly skilled individuals and re-training them and are putting out ‘Entry Level’ positions requiring 5+ Years of experience and certifications that would make people experts in this field. Its an absolute mess.
In the last position I held, I found myself being included in more security related topics outside of typical System Administration tasks such as building, deploying and supporting standard I.T systems, for example helping Information Security / Operational Security Teams to deploy security specific systems and controls, endpoint configuration and remediation, security policy creating and deployment, vulnerability and patch co-ordination, custom tool creating for checking security controls on endpoints, auditing and reporting etc etc. This gave me some exposure to the security side, which I absolutely loved so it pushed me towards changing into a Cyber specific field.
Security is the most critical component when working within the various fields of Information Technology or even if you have a keen interest in technology, I.e you’re a gadget freak like me.
If you have a keen personal interest in technology and you decide you want to go out and look for that latest and greatest gadget, perhaps a new mobile phone or a laptop, you want to make sure that you are aware of the capabilities of the hardware and software to ensure that you, your data and identities, are safe and secure. You definitely don’t want to have your bank accounts, or email accounts, compromised for instance.
From an organisational perspective, when you spend days, weeks, months or even years developing new applications, services or products, deploying new critical infrastructure, or you’re getting involved in project management related tasks, security needs to be one of the first topics for discussion.
Having worked in I.T for a long time, working within different fields, having to liaise with different teams all of the world and working closely with Operational Security and Information Security colleagues, the importance of security and how under resourced these teams are is laid bare. This is essentially how a started my journey to move over.
Having great security awareness in your personal life, and also in your professional life, will foster a monumental and lasting impact.