Cybersecurity has become an important part of digital security. Cybersecurity engineers are responsible for designing and managing security tools. They design and install secure systems that protect information and reduce the chances of cyber attacks.
Moreover, becoming a security engineer requires strong skills, experience, and qualifications. Security engineers protect an organisation’s or individual’s digital data. They also have major responsibilities, such as sensing a threat and taking immediate action against it.
What is a Cybersecurity Engineers?
Cybersecurity engineers are responsible for identifying digital threats to computer systems. They create and manage the security policies of computer networks and systems. Their main role is identifying and acting against hacking, breaching, malware, etc.
Moreover, these engineers regularly test and monitor the systems to ensure they meet requirements. They have many roles, such as software engineers, penetration testers, ethical hackers, etc.
Roles and Responsibilities
Some of the roles and responsibilities of these cybersecurity engineers include managing digital security measures to protect computer systems.
1. They create security measures, guidelines, and policies to protect the software. The engineers need to identify risk by performing risk management. To maintain security control, they install firewalls and intrusion detection systems.
2. Check the network traffic regularly and ensure no threats or malware act like server traffic. If suspicious activities are detected, the engineers must implement the management tools. They also identify the security risks in the network system.
3. The engineers must collaborate with other IT, Legal, and Human Resources departments. This is to ensure network security. This helps detect risks and threats immediately without causing major damage.
4. They also manage data security and must protect sensitive information from breaching. If a condition like breaching occurs, they detect the attackers. The engineers recover the damage and apply a strong security manager.
Skills and Qualifications
Becoming a security engineer requires some major skills and qualifies them. One should have practice, experience, and skills.
Skills
Technical and soft skills are the two major skills required to become a security engineer.
1. Technical Skill:
The engineer should know network protocols such as TCP/IP and UDP. Network security tools include Firewalls, Burp Suite, Kali Linux, Nmap, and more. SIEM platforms include Splunk, Elasticsearch, QRadar, and more. Some other technical skills required are cryptography, data security, operating systems, and more.
2. Soft Skill:
The soft skills include problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, ethical hacking and more. Problem-solving skills help an engineer learn about analytics and reach out to the attacker.
Teamwork requires the engineer to work together with proper planning. Adaptability means to adapt any new skills as soon as possible. Ethical hacking means legal and authorised hacking practices.
Qualification
Some qualifications are required to become a cybersecurity engineer. The qualifications are listed below:
1. Bachelor’s degree in computer science, cybersecurity, information technology, or a related field.
2. Experience in cybersecurity-related duties.
3. Experienced in network protocols, security tools, and troubleshooting.
4. Familiar with common operating systems.
5. Certifications such as Certified Ethical Hacker, GIAC Certifications and more are required.
6. Able to work under a pressure environment.
7. Adaptability and problem-solving skills.
Career, Salary and Demand
To build a career in cybersecurity engineering without experience, one should know basic programming in any language. CEH v12 Certification is required, and they provide cybersecurity training. One can also take online courses on Coursera, edX, or Udemy.
Moreover, to gain experience, join a company based on cybersecurity or engineering. Many companies hire BAE Systems, FireEye, or any startup-based company. Microsoft, Amazon, and more are popular companies that hire these engineers regularly.
The salary varies based on experience and skills. However, the table explains the salary expectations:
| USA | India | UK | |
| Minimum Salary | USD 110,000 | INR 300,000 | GBP 43,000 |
| Average Salary | USD 130,000 | INR 800,000 | GBP 52,000 |
| Highest Salary | USD 172,000 | INR 18,00,000 | GBP 73,000 |
Companies That Hire Cybersecurity Engineers in 2024 are:
- HP
- Deloitte
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Walmart
- Microsoft
- CISCO
- Tesla
- Meta
- Apple
- Lockheed Martin
- Check Point Software
- Symantec
- IBM
- Amazon
Cybersecurity Books For The Beginners
Many books on cybersecurity are available online and in stores. To learn about its principles, here are ten of the best books on cybersecurity.
1. Cybersecurity For Dummies (Joseph Steinberg)
2. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition (Jon Erickson)
3. Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking (Christopher Hadnagy)
4. Big Breaches: Cybersecurity Lessons for Everyone (Neil Daswani, Moudy Elbayadi)
5. The Hacker Playbook 3: Practical Guide to Penetration Testing (Peter Kim)
6. Cybersecurity: The Beginner’s Guide (Dr. Erdal Ozkaya)
7. Cybersecurity Career Master Plan (Dr. Gerald Auger, Jaclyn “Jax” Scott)
8. Confident Cybersecurity: How to Get Started in Cybersecurity and Futureproof Your Career (Dr. Jessica Barker)
9. Black Hat Python, 2ND Edition: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters (Justin Seitz, Tim Arnold)
10. Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook, Sixth Edition (Dr. Allen Harper, Ryan Linn)
Free Cybersecurity Courses
There is a myth that cybersecurity courses are costly and they can get your pockets empty. However, this is not true. There are many platforms that offer knowledge for free. Here are some of the free cybersecurity courses that offer theoretical as well as practical knowledge.
1. Free Cybersecurity Courses and Tutorials by Udemy
Udemy is a well-known online learning platform that offers a range of courses across different areas. The cybersecurity course is one of the free course that Udemy offers. Though it won’t offer practical knowledge but if your practice while attending these tutorials you can build a strong base.
2. Cybersecurity Training by TryHackMe
TryHackMe is a website that is dedicated to offer end-to-end learning of cybersecurity. It offers bite sized lessons in the form of game. Making cybersecurity learning easy and engaging. These gamified lessons are so addictive that you won’t leave this training incomplete.
3. IBM: Cybersecurity Basics by EDX
IBM is one of the renowned management institute. It offers many courses on EDX online learning platform for free. And Cybersecurity Basic is one of them. By attending this course you get best guidance and lay a strong foundation.
4. Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate by Coursera
Microsoft is one of the best IT company that offers some of the best courses on Coursera. Some of them are free while other comes with a price tag. However, it offer a free cybersecurity professional course. Moreover, if you complete this course, you also get a certificate that can enhance your resume.
In A Nutshell
Cybersecurity engineers play a major role in the protection of networks and systems. They are responsible for the protection of data from cyber-attacks. Becoming a security engineer requires skills such as Burp Suite, Kali Linux, Nmap, and more. Also, if you are a beginner, many books teach cybersecurity.