The need for workers to keep watch over the cyber world spans all fields, from private industry to government agencies. In fact, there are currently about 465,000 cybersecurity job openings, according to The U.S. Commerce Department. You could land one of them.
And you don’t need an advanced degree from a major university. According to Michelle Moore, who teaches cybersecurity operations at the University of San Diego, an eight-week online course could help you land an entry-level job as a penetration tester, network security engineer, or incident response analyst. Starting salary? $60,000 to $90,000 a year.
The problem is that computer science students have so many fields to choose from. And cybersecurity hasn’t been able to compete well with robotics, data science, or artificial intelligence.
But with the rise in cyber crime, the demand for cybersecurity experts has gone through the roof. One of the biggest trends in cyber attacks right now is ransomware. Hackers executed more than 70 ransomware attacks in the first half of 2019. The most recent was the ransomeware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, resulting in a major disruption of gas distribution to the east coast.
“Cybersecurity is not rocket science,” commented Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research at CompTIA. Switching careers to cybersecurity could be as easy as grabbing a Network+ or Security+ certification.
Go for it!