Many parents, students and those currently working in IT/other jobs keep asking me about cyber security job opportunities. Starting with this column, I will cover cyber security job opportunities over next few articles. In today’s column I am going to give a brief introduction as to what is cyber security, what is the need for cyber security, how big is the cyber security job market and what are the different entry level cyber security job opportunities out there currently. I am going to write at length about those individual entry level cyber security job opportunities in future columns. You can also check out my various other articles related to cyber security here
What is Cyber Security?
Cyber Security is all about protecting and recovering systems, networks, devices (computer/smartphone/IoT), software programs, and information from any form of cyber attack. Cyber security is also known as Information Technology (IT) security or electronic information security. It is mainly divided into device(computer/mobile/IoT) security, network security, application security, information security, operational security, disaster recovery and business continuity.
Why Cyber Security?
According to a published data by a research company Statista, the loss due to cyber attacks was 8 trillion USD in 2023 and could reach 20 trillion USD worldwide by 2026. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 11.29 lakh cyber crimes were recorded in India in 2023, resulting in a loss of Rs 749 crore. In this, it is estimated that the loss due to cyber crimes to government and private organizations and unreported cases is at least ten times more than the above mentioned losses. Cyber security is essential for organizations to prevent and minimize these losses. Because in today’s digital world without cyber security our trains, planes, electricity/water/gas supply, hospital etc can be prevented from functioning properly by cyber criminals/terrorists. Simply put, cybersecurity helps preserve the lifestyle we know and enjoy.
What is the size of cyber security job opportunities?
According to Statista, the global cyber security market size will be $159 billion and the cyber security market size in India will be $4 billion in 2023, and is expected to grow to $9.21 billion in India and $298.5 billion globally by 2028. Hence, huge number of cyber security job opportunities are going to be created in the coming years, which pay well also. Students and those who want to change their career cyber security can avail this huge opportunity. According to an Economic Times report, there is a shortage of over 3 lakh cyber security experts in India alone as of 2023.
Can Anyone Become a Cyber Security Expert?
Anyone can get a cyber security job with the right education, learning, interest and passing certain certifications. Cybersecurity offers a variety of career opportunities, as mentioned above you can specialize in any cybersecurity discipline or choose one of the ten entry-level cybersecurity jobs listed below. Those ten entry-level cybersecurity jobs are – Security Analyst, Security Specialist, Incident Responder, Cryptographer, Security Engineer, Security Administrator, Security Auditor, Forensic Expert, Penetration Tester and Source Code Auditor. You can take online or offline classes to specialize in the cyber security disciplines described above. You can also take free and fee-based courses on YouTube, many college/university/institute websites and clearing the certification exams offered by them will increase your job opportunities and help you get higher salaries. In the next few columns I will explain in detail how you can specialize in each of these jobs.