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Cybersecurity Ventures projects that cybercrimes will cost the world a staggering $9.5 trillion in 2024. Given these high stakes, organizations are seeking cybersecurity experts to protect their data and help limit losses to cybercrime.
Beyond the many entry-level and intermediate cybersecurity positions, the role of cybersecurity engineer is near the top of the career ladder. This position requires advanced skills and offers competitive salaries.
This article explores how to become a cybersecurity engineer, day-to-day job duties for these professionals and career data for cybersecurity engineers.
What Is a Cybersecurity Engineer?
Cybersecurity engineer is among the more advanced roles in cybersecurity. This role is sometimes called information security engineer or network security engineer. Cybersecurity engineers focus on protecting data and preventing disruptions caused by digital attacks.
Cybersecurity engineers’ primary responsibilities include designing, implementing, monitoring and upgrading security measures. As part of information or cybersecurity teams, these engineers respond to security breaches, test and identify system vulnerabilities and write reports for those in managerial roles.
Cybersecurity Engineer Salary and Job Outlook
Cybersecurity engineers earn highly competitive salaries. According to Payscale, these engineers make an average base cybersecurity salary of about $101,000. Their wages are likely to increase as they gain experience and earn certifications.
As for job outlook, there is a massive labor shortage in the cybersecurity field. Cyberseek—a collaboration between the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, CompTIA and Lightcast—performs data analysis of the cybersecurity job market. Between September 2022 and August 2023, there were over 570,000 job openings for cybersecurity professionals, according to Cyberseek.
Cybersecurity roles take 21% longer to fill than other types of jobs ..
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