Cybersecurity Engineers work on protecting computer systems from theft or damage to their hardware, software or electronic data, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they provide. They provide security solutions for their organization, perform assessments and penetration testing, and manage security technology and audit systems.

Demand in the Cybersecurity job market is soaring while supply is running critically low. In the U.S. alone, job postings are up 74% over the past five years, as reported by Forbes. Quite simply, there aren’t enough qualified and skilled Cybersecurity Engineers to fill the growing need.

To get a better idea about this job and the skills it requires, let's take a close look at the job market landscape and the insights.

Market insights : (Powered by Riminder)

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Insights :

Through our analysis we gathered information about Cybersecurity Engineers around the globe, here are some of the most relevant insights we drew:

The job of a Cybersecurity Engineer involves a diverse set of skills, ranging from Networks security and Vulnerability assessment to Systems engineering and Penetration testing. Cybersecurity Engineers must also learn various programming languages, most commonly C and Java.

  • Information Security: It is the practice of preventing unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording or destruction of information. This information or data may take any electronic or physical form. Cybersecurity Engineers have to maintain a high level of security of their organization's information and are responsible for preventing any malicious use of it.

  • Network security: Consists of the policies and practices adopted to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. One of the main duties of Cybersecurity Engineers is architecting, developing and fielding secure networking solutions to protect against advanced various threats.

  • Risk analysis: A technique used to identify and assess factors that may jeopardize the success of a project or achieving a goal. This is a very important skill for Cybersecurity Engineers to have because they are constantly required, throughout the progression of any project, to identify and track risks. They need to foresee the kind of threats and attacks that can befall the system and think of possible solutions to effectively mitigate the problem.

  • CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional): An independent information security certification granted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC) which covers subject matter in a variety of Information Security topics like Security and Risk Management, Security Architecture and Engineering, Communication and Network Security, and more. Besides the rich curriculum that this program offers, it is highly appreciated in the IT industry. In fact, a 2006 survey by Certification Magazine ranked CISSP as the best-paid credentials in IT, which makes it a very rewarding asset for Cybersecurity Engineers.

  • Vulnerability Assessment: The process of defining, identifying, classifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities in computer systems, applications, and network infrastructures and providing the necessary knowledge, awareness and risk background to understand the threats to its environment and react appropriately. Cybersecurity Engineers perform vulnerability assessment in order to detect security weaknesses in their systems and assess the risks associated with those weaknesses which helps reduce the likelihood that a cybercriminal will breach their systems and catch the business off guard.

  • Linux: It is an open source cross-platform operating system based on Unix that can be installed on PCs, laptops, netbooks, mobile and tablet devices, servers, supercomputers and more. Cybersecurity Engineers have to ensure their company's infrastructure security, and since most companies have their environment on Linux, it is important to master Linux fundamentals.

  • Java: it's a general-purpose computer programming language that is concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, and specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. Java is a dynamic language that allows developers to run their programs on all supported platforms without the need for recompilation. Since Java is very widespread in the industry, Cybersecurity Engineers are almost certainly going to encounter software written in it which makes understanding java basics very helpful in figure out where the security issues on that software are coming from.

After talking about the top skills Cybersecurity Engineers need to succeed in their job, it's time to see what are the companies with most paid Cybersecurity Engineer paths. Through our analysis, we created the chart bellow ranking the top 10 companies for these profiles.

Now it's time examine the early beginnings of Cybersecurity Engineers and see how they kicked off their careers. Through our analysis, we revealed some insights about the most common first jobs for these profiles. Check the chart below: