With the easy availability of Internet
facility at a very affordable cost, allows anyone from anywhere at any
time to get connected to anyone located anywhere in the world. There
are no physical/regional boundaries for any business activity and Time Zone have
become an advantage since people can now transact on 24x7basis. This
business-friendly digital environment has brought a plethora of problems
related to data safety, data integrity, privacy, security and accessibility.
The number of cyber-attacks /cybercrimes continues to rise and so is the
need for ensuring safe, reliable and secure data. This cyber threatened
environment poses serious concerns to most companies/organisations/institutions
and they need professionals experienced in managing cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity risk is not just the risk of data breach/ corruption, but also
the risk of the entire organization being put out of gear and blocked its
functioning. The target organisation can be Banking, the Financial market,
Healthcare, Insurance, Education, Air/Rail Ticketing and Reservation, Military
operations or Social Media. In emerging Digital World, intelligent
communication and computing devices are being employed in all business /
workplaces. These electronic devices are prone to hacking and consequently,
instances of cyber-attacks are on the rise.
Till around 2008, the major issue was
Information Security where various enterprises and organisations, had their own
computer network configuration deploying Hardware/Software Firewall, use
voice/data scramblers/descramblers, security keys to encipher and decipher
sensitive information on their dedicated leased lines. There were very few
cyber criminals and hackers who would do fraud with banking, hospital services
or industrial establishments.
With cloud computing becoming
cost-effective for many Small, Medium Establishments (SMEs), information
security has a new dimension to tackle. In a public cloud computing
environment, customers are not sure where their data has been stored. Even
if some large enterprises have their own cloud and deploy own means for security,
they are not fully secure. However, with social media traffic being handled as
Big Data on a 24x7 basis by Google, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter,
LinkedIn and using Data Analytic like tools, one is not sure of the safety and
privacy of data. Social media networking is an easy target for
hackers to spread misinformation/false news about any political party or
celebrity.
In fact, in the last 10 years,
cyber-attacks have become cyber warfare where nations are using cyber means to
impact the minds of the citizens of the target country. Cyber agencies engage
hackers to monitor communication channels and computer networks of the target
organisation and sabotage their information systems and to the advantage of
their client. As per the need of the clients, hackers are deployed to either
protect their system from cyber-attack or take remedial measures to restore the
system, if it has been attacked. The hackers keep target system under
surveillance silently and at a suitable time, launch an attack to disable or
corrupt the system and render it unserviceable at a critical
time. Such activities can also be by a terrorist organisation to
cause harm to the government/ public facilities.
Of late, it has been used as
psychological warfare to impact the minds of society by spreading hatred,
misinformation or false news through social media networks. A case in point
is 2016 elections of the USA and the alleged involvement of Russia having
interfered to sabotage USA’s election process. Thus cyber-attack has become
potent and silent warfare against any country. During, 2018-2019 there have
been many cyber-attacks on the hospital information system which paralysed
operations of all departments and it took 2 to 3 days to restore the
system. Likewise, hackers have disrupted Airport operations. There
are business houses who like to hack information system of their competitor by
feeding wrong information or completely shutting down their MIS.
Changing Working
Environment. In the
last 10 years, there has been a great change in our work culture, the way we
behave, the way we work and interconnect through various communication
channels. Today work-places are not bound by physical buildings, devices, or
even time zone. To get a job done, trustworthy information must be available as
to when and where we need it. Various software apps must perform reliably and
securely, wherever and whenever we use those. While emerging technologies
such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Intelligent Automation and the Internet
of things (IoT) are helping to enhance their productivity, efficiency and
reliability, these are also posing new security threats. One of the main
challenges for various industries, organizations/institutions is to have
adequate skilled security professionals who understand the
importance of developing and deploying new digital technologies securely, and
also to protect their organizational data and infrastructure from security threats.
Scope. Cybersecurity is a vast and technically complex subject requiring a
book of 200 to 300 pages to be written to cover various
aspects. This article does not cover details about various
algorithms, mathematical/statistical techniques and software/ hardware tools
used to provide cybersecurity. Scope of this article is limited to provide
basic knowledge and job potential of cybersecurity to young professionals who
aspire to get into this exciting and highly paid career.
Difference between
Cyber Security and Information Security. Although, both these provide
protection against information and data being stolen, accessed or changed
yet these are quite different in their scope and capabilities. It is
not only the information stored on a computer is to be protected but even the
hard copy (print) stored in a file-cabinet, needs sound security
protection. Cybersecurity deals with protecting data and information from
outside sources in cyberspace or the Internet. Today the Internet
and Cloud Computing are controlling almost every part of our
lives. Both individuals, as well as business companies, need to be
protected from the various internal and external security threats. It is
therefore very important to understand the difference between cybersecurity and
information security.
· Information Security. Information security is related to
protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access,
modification or removal from our system. When certain text, numbers, sound or
pictures are stored in a computer system, they are considered data. When
computer-stored data is actually processed as per business rules, it becomes
information. It is this information which needs protection from outside
sources. These outside sources may not necessarily be in cyberspace. In an
office setting, one own employee might go to another’s computer, install a pen
drive (USB) and copy confidential information. This information is stolen for
subsequent misuse.
· Cybersecurity. Cybersecurity
is the process of protecting information and data from outside sources on the
Internet. Cyber-security professionals provide protection for
the telecommunications network, computer networks, servers, intranets and
computer systems. It also ensures that only authorized people have access to
that information. If someone located far away, manages to hack into
another company’s network and breach their system, this is termed as
cyber-attack for which the company needs better cybersecurity.
Attributes of Cybersecurity. In the digital economy, we need global
access to carry out our business on a 24x7 basis. At the same time, we need
safety, privacy and integrity of customer data as well as our business
data. For smooth and assured functioning of the information system,
the following attributes are universally accepted:
· Availability. This aspect helps us to maintain a
judicious balance between restrictions imposed upon the information system and
its ready availability to the users.
· Authenticity. It relates to verification and
approval of any user seeking accessibility and use of related data.
· Auditing and logging. In addition to the authenticity and
integrity of data, it also includes an audit trail, for traceability of any
malicious activity.
· Confidentiality. This refers to preventing
unauthorized users from accessing data.
· Integrity. It relates to permitting only
authorized users to update data.
Cybersecurity Threats. Cybersecurity is one of
the fastest-growing industries since more and more companies or institutions
are realising the importance of data protection and privacy. Businesses houses
are taking note of incidents of cyber-attacks costing them big loss every year.
Some major threats related to Information Security and some to Cyber Security
are briefly explained below:
· Insider Threats. Insiders threats relate to information
security and are caused by own disgruntled employees. Insider threats keep happening
silently causing great embarrassment /harm to the organisation. These own working employees keep lurking around
to steal away some information for their personal advantage but causing big
damage/loss to the organisation. As per the latest survey, 90% of insider
threats go undetected for weeks or months. Combating insider threats is one of
the big challenges due to limited data visibility. As per available
statistics, 80% of insider threat incidents occur mainly due to three common
situations: a) exiting employees, b) relocating of employees during company
re-organisation, c) employees having access to high-value files containing
business rules/secrets. Unhappy employees can take away trade
secrets and other valuable information and security team can’t stop as they
can’t see stolen information. Today with rapid advancement in
electronics and computing devices, data is more portable where
removing/steeling of data in an organization is quite easy. Employees can store
hundreds of gigabytes on their smartphones or they can quickly take 1TB or more
of data on a pen drive. They can quickly transfer dozens or hundreds of files
to personal cloud storage services like Dropbox. They can instantly share files
through says Microsoft Teams and other messenger apps.
· Social Networking. These attacks exploit their
social interactions with insiders (employees) to gain access to sensitive data
through deception. Cybercriminals manipulate some employees of
the company and bypass security checkpoints.
· Hacking Software Security
System. These
are silent and most dangerous cyber- attacks where a malicious code
stealthily planted by the hacker into your computer system and can
silently (un-noticed) run on various platforms like Linux, Mac
OS and Windows operating systems and inject a virus into stored
data. In addition, portable communication and computing devices such as iPods,
smartphones, and tablets also pose additional cyber threats. This
way hacker can quietly and at his/her time of choosing copy/delete/alter your
sensitive data. The hacker can disable a computer network and bring
the whole organization to stand still. It is happening in health care
facilities, airports that at a critical time, the computer system shuts down or
starts malfunctioning. It is quite difficult to detect and counter such silent
attacks. This could jeopardize your business processes leading to bog business
loss.
· Third-Party Exposure. Many retailers engage third
party payment gateway for services to handle customer’s personal information
like Aaddar Card Number ( India ) /Social Security Numbers ( USA) or
credit card numbers. Having engaged in the third party, they feel any breach of
data security applies to the third party. Actually, a third party vendor does
not absolve retailers from their responsibility for a data breach.
· Software Patch Management. It is easier for the hacker, to
attack an out-dated software system. Some companies are lazy and do not
update their system by adding a software patch, as recommended by the software
agency. Such outdated software can be easily exploited by the hacker to launch
a cyber-attack.
· Cloud Vulnerabilities. Many companies think they are
fully secure because they use cloud security technology. Actually, the
data stored on a public cloud is exposed to a higher risk of a data breach.
Cloud services are vulnerable to a wide range of cyber- attacks, like
hacking business account, which prevents companies from being able to
access their data from the cloud.
· Ransom-ware attacks. These attacks infect your
network and hold your data and computer systems hostage until a ransom is paid.
Such attacks are increasing across the globe.
· Mistaking Compliance for
Protection. Some
companies think meeting ISO standards or simply meeting data
compliance and legal standards will make their data safe. It is in false hope
and their data is prone to hacking any time.
· Mobile Security Threats. Mobile communication
technology is indeed a big boon for any businesses, but it also
exposes their information system to potential cybersecurity breaches. The
majority of these attacks come from malware and malicious Wifi.
· Internet of Things
(IoT). The Internet of Things (IoT) has given new impetus to the
service sector as it connects devices from all over the world through
the internet. This allows for a network of devices to store, send, and receive
data in autonomous mode. Although IoT makes it convenient
for end-users it also makes them vulnerable. Hackers can exploit
internet connectivity as an access point to quietly steal data.
· Military operations. For military operations
against an adversary, cyber-attack is proving a low cost, silent and quicker
attack. There is no need for going across an enemy border or use of Ground. Air
or Sea force. Cyberwarfare is even smarter than Electronic Warfare
(EW) or any clandestine/covert operation or proxy war. It is a lot more
effective than good old psychological warfare or propaganda through radio or
airdropping of leaflets.
Security challenges.
· There are no global standards for
cybersecurity.
· Difficult to monitor or control
multimedia networks.
· The proliferation of
communication networks using technologies of 3G/4G and future 5G.
· The present approach of
countering security threat is not matching new threats by high tech
hackers. There is an urgent need for a new cybersecurity system.
· Most of the existing security systems
have limited authentication
Job Potential. With the easy availability of
internet across the world and a flood of unclassified information flying across
the globe through social media, cyber threats are on the increase.
Consequently, both cyber-security and information security professionals are in
great demand. As per the survey report of Burning Glass Technologies, during 2014, in the USA
alone approximately 238,158 jobs were advertised for various levels
of security/cybersecurity personnel. As per California Lutheran
University (CLU), US bureau of labour statistics has reported that
cybersecurity job growth will be 32% by 2028. Similarly, the Information
Systems Audit and Control Association has reported that 69 % of the world
cybersecurity teams are understaffed and 58% unfilled
positions. In the USA, it takes on an average of six months or more to
fill a cyber-security position. There are various types of jobs available in
both fields of security. A Cybersecurity professional will have a wide range
of career options across a wide variety of industries like finance,
banking, insurance, marketing and logistics, health-care, travel and tourism,
government and defence jobs. Indeed, this is a very special field
requiring special competence in computer hardware, software and communication
devices. Some of the common categories of jobs are listed below:
·
Chief Information
Security Officer ( CISO)
·
Information
security analyst
·
Information
security coordinator
·
Information
security officer
·
Cybersecurity
compliance security analyst
·
Information
security manager
·
Information
security engineer
·
Software
developers/coders
·
Web
designers
·
Cybersecurity
analyst
·
Cryptographer
·
Forensics
expert
·
Ethical
Hackers
Action plan. The good old saying, “well
begun is half done” is ever true. If you are looking for a career in Cyber
Security, do not hesitate and take a plunge right now and you will sail
through. Depending upon your present job, your qualification,
hands-on experience, capacity to attend part-time/weekend training programs,
you can make your decision. It is not possible for anyone to know
everything about cybersecurity but you can choose your area of interest
which could be Hardware, Software Programming, Embedded
software, Web Technology or Network Engineering. However, basic points which
may help anyone interested to make a career in the cybersecurity
field are listed below:
Make a start. Employers are looking for candidates with experience of
real-life security scenarios. You do not wait, instead, take off early to have
an edge over late starters.
Self Study. Carry
out self-audit to see if there are any gaps in your qualification/ skill
set. Plan how to make up for that deficiency. Some common
points for self-study in own time and at
own place are given below:
· Read books and journals related to
cybersecurity.
· Read IT and
security magazines/news sites and blogs.
· Bookmark useful cybersecurity
websites and browse these often.
· Brush up your knowledge about
communication security, software security, cryptography.
· Attend short fast-track
courses in computer programming and gain knowledge of system-level programming
and fault diagnostic
· Go to Google Search and select a good
college/university offering cybersecurity and digital forensics degree
programs
· Attend security seminars/webinars,
symposiums, conferences to learn what is new, make friends and set up your
network.
· Participate
in computer hacking contests
·
Contact your peer or/and mentor who has been in this
field.
Self Learning by Doing.
· Learn and practise software coding in
programming and scripting language like PHP, Java, Python, Rubi.
· Set up a dummy website and practice
various hacking tools.
· Set up your own cybersecurity lab
using old PCs, a wireless router with a firewall, a network switch. Then ask a
friend to join and practice hacking the computer server. Then try restoring the
network.
· Participate in
cybersecurity contests
Online Courses.
· Take an online cybersecurity
certification course through MOOC. Coursera,
· Search on the internet a right
institute/university for the right price to do a Bachelor/ Master
level degree
Networking and volunteering.
· Join LinkedIn groups, professional
networks and security organizations.
· Connect with peers playing cyber-games
and practice hacking.
· Collaborate with a team (at work or in
a college) on a cybersecurity project.
· Offer to help your professor or
employer with security-related tasks
· Volunteer to do IT security work for a
non-profit or charity.
Career transition from IT security to
Cybersecurity. It is easier to move from IT job to
cybersecurity job. You need to pick up one or more of the following IT jobs
that can lead to cybersecurity careers:
·
Computer software
programmer /developer
·
Computer
Software Engineer
·
Computer
Systems Analyst
·
Database
Administrator
·
IT
Technician
·
IT
Customer Service
·
Network
Administrator
·
Network
Engineer
·
Network
Systems & Data Analyst
·
System
Administrator
·
Web
Administrator
Recruiter Preference. The recruiting organisation is looking for a judicious mix of technical and soft skills.
Technical skills. The candidate should have sound knowledge IT
fundamentals: e.g. networking, systems administration, database management, web
applications. He/she should be well versed in day-to-day operations: e.g.
physical security, networks, server equipment, enterprise storage, users,
apps. No one person is expected to know all IT skills for
progressing his/her career in the cybersecurity field. Based on your present
qualification and proficiency, you should include needed skillset from the
following common list, to fill the gaps in your CV:
Operating Systems & Database
Management.
· Windows, UNIX and Linux operating systems
· MySQL environments
Programming & Coding
·
C++ , Java ,XML and PHP
·
Python, Ruby, Perl and/or shell
·
Assembly
language
·
Embedded
software
·
Linux/MAC
shell scripting
Networks.
· System/network configuration
· TCP/IP, computer networking, routing and switching
· Network protocols and packet analysis
tools
· Firewall and intrusion
detection/prevention protocols
· Packet Shaper, Load Balancer and Proxy
Server knowledge
· VPNs
Professional IT Certifications.
· Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Routing
and Switching
· Information Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL) Foundation
· Microsoft Certificate Solutions Associate (MCSA) and
the expert MCSE
· Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
Special Achievements. This may include Cyber contest awards, award on a
contest of ethical hacking
Specializations. Security experts usually, end up specializing in
their specific area of interest which could be one or more of the followings:
·
Cisco
networks
·
Cloud
computing
·
Cryptography
·
Database
modelling
·
Microsoft
technologies
·
Open-source
applications
·
Radio
Communications
Get hands-on experience. Your best source of information about
cybersecurity, a job is the people who are already involved/ employed in this
field. To have a quick take-off –
· Evaluate the pros and cons of a
cyber-security job in government, private, non-profit, start-ups and defence
(military) service.
· Browse and post questions on IT
security message boards
· Check job requirement and Talk to
your peers, alumni and mentors and seek their advice.
· Ask your present and past professors
for referrals
· Interact with fellow
hackers, senior students
· Find projects related to cybersecurity
to gain your technical skills
· Decide what kinds of cybersecurity
Certification you need
Soft Skills. The candidate should know what to communicate
to customer/vendor or channel partner and peers. It is very important for
him/her as to how to communicate with non-IT colleagues. Some basic traits are:
· Good communication skills
· Good code of conduct, dress
· Good team member.
· Security consciousness
· Positive attitude to work
as a useful member of a team
· Understand business procedures &
processes
· Passion to solve complex puzzles and
problems
· Good report writer and presenter
What to put in a CV. The CV is
the most important document where you first time come in contact with the
recruitment team. It is the document where you must showcase your strengths so
that you easily clear the first stage of screening. The CV should not belong to
storytelling over 4-6pages but rather be just 1 to 2 pages, covering the most
essential information. Some essential point to include in the CV are :
·
College Degree. For a good career in Cybersecurity and have good growth you need a degree in engineering
or science from a well-recognised university/institution/ college. You may
select a Bachelor Degree, Masters / corticated based on your present
qualification and future plan to move up the ladder of cyber Security
job. There are many universities and institutions offering regular
courses as well as online programs in cybersecurity. You may browse
on the internet and pick the one which suits your appetite and affordability.
You may start with a free online basic course but you need a little higher
level paid program for getting a good job. Therefore you should attend a
paid course with certification. It is important to acquire a
formal degree from a college/ university/institution of repute where you can
learn important skills in communication, writing, business and project
management. Remember that a strong academic qualification will facilitate your
rise to higher positions in your career.
·
Relevant Job Experience. List any
previous IT positions plus any other work related to IT security and
cybersecurity. That includes volunteer work, internships and apprenticeships.
·
Course and certification. List all the courses and certification
which you have earned to demonstrate your competency.
Creating
professionals for Cyber Security Jobs. With widespread awareness and need to have an effective
cybersecurity system, there is a great demand for highly competent cyber
experts. Although employers offer very lucrative pay package, career
advancement and appealing work environment to lure cybersecurity professionals
yet there are not enough qualified and competent professionals to meet
industry demand. This shortage of cybersecurity professionals in not only in the
USA but throughout the globe, There is not only a shortage but also
difficult to retain cybersecurity experts. The universities’ and colleges are
imparting basic training in their curriculum but they are not matching in good
real-life experience needed by the industry. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)
or Industry-Academia Partnership is another important part of the solution to
train young professionals to join this new exciting and highly paid profession.
By working together with universities, corporations and other organizations to
develop a skills-ready workforce, can help to combat cyber threats.
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