How to build your career as a Cybersecurity Analyst in 2021

“The practice of being protected against the criminal or unauthorized use of electronic data or the measures taken to achieve this is called Cybersecurity.”

In the digital world, advanced technology has seamlessly worked its way into the real world. Cutting-edge technologies are aimed at easing our lives, making them faster. While this is a boon for everyone, it is also a bane as the rise of cyber-crime is prevalent and we often hear about identity theft, hacking, and data leaks from cyber miscreants. Crime oriented with internet or computer that involves a network is known as cybercrime and protecting ourselves and our personal and professional data against damages to hardware and software are known as cybersecurity. Earlier cybersecurity threats occurred through unknown callers but now identity theft through social media, stealing digital information, and accounts getting hacked are part and parcel of virtual life. Although very common, they can have lasting effects on the victims. Everyone should understand cybersecurity fundamentals.

These criminal attacks come in many ways:

• Ransomware attacks
• IoT attacks
• Cloud attacks
• Phishing attacks
• Software vulnerabilities
• Insider attacks
• Outdated hardware

A Cybersecurity professional expert can identify malware, build software to tackle phishing attacks, put in place applications to secure your cloud data and protect your organization’s digital footprint to avoid a breach.

Career Prospects in IT:

Every organization in the IT field has a cybersecurity career domain primarily focusing on securing the internal assets both hardware and software, the organization’s administrative information, clientele, customers, vendors, accounts and various other domains. Security Operations is a critical section of any IT industry that take care of risk management, Identity and Assets Management, compliance, application security and employee database.

Popular roles/ positions in the cybersecurity field are Cybersecurity Consultant, Cybersecurity Engineer, Application Developer, Azure Security Engineer, Chief Information Security Officer, etc. These are some of the top roles that are in high demand across the IT sector who create cybersecurity roadmaps and implement them for internal and external systems. The roles mentioned above are highly sought after and it takes a significant amount of hard work, hustle and accreditation to become top-notch industry experts.

Prerequisites:

While cybersecurity growth opportunities are plentiful, these roles can have a huge impact on the organization and on the clients. A single mishap can make or break the deal. Hence cybersecurity programs should be designed in a way to have a keen eye for identifying malpractice when on the surface everything looks smooth. The job does not require one to travel across the world dodging bullets, but it could be sitting in front of a computer for hours building a bullet-proof application to secure the system.

You should have knowledge of Windows, Linux operating systems and scripting languages, experience with computer networks, cloud applications, one or more programming languages.

Cybersecurity professionals receive a higher remuneration, and the job openings may be plenty, but the job is not as lucrative as it sounds unless you are passionate about securing software and other critical resources; problem-solving skills, continuous learning and upgrading with new technologies, getting certified could be daunting for a fresh grad seeking entry-level jobs. Accreditation can make you stand out and help you crack that cybersecurity interview and progress your career.

Let us look at some security courses and online certification courses targeted towards cloud security.

Courses and Certifications:

Here are some security courses that you can take to get certified, and jump-start your career to become a professionally certified security expert in various domains from AWS (AWS certified security speciality), Microsoft Azure to Google Cloud Platform. Some of these courses are offered by CloudThat, which is Gold Microsoft Partner, Amazon Advanced Consulting Partner and a Google Cloud Partner. All the below associate and expert level courses and need foundation-level knowledge of some of the technologies.

• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• Microsoft Azure Security Technologies [AZ-500]
• Microsoft 365 Security Administration [MS-500]
• Microsoft Identity and Access Management [SC-300] 
• Google Certified Professional Cloud Security Engineer
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals [MB-901]
• Azure Architect Technologies and Design [AZ-303, AZ-304]

Microsoft Offerings:

Narrowing down to cloud security, popularly used software tools such as Outlook, Teams (for meetings) as provided by Microsoft are susceptible to cyber threats. To understand your current security posture in terms of Microsoft365 you can have a look at the security score available at the Microsoft365 Security centre. Microsoft administration here has come to the rescue with its Microsoft 365 suite (which includes all security solutions and workspace tools).

A detailed insight on detecting and preventing Cyberattacks with SecureThat.  

Let us have a look at the Security solutions offered by Microsoft:

• Microsoft Defender for Identity (formerly Azure Advanced Threat Protection)
• Microsoft Defender for Office365 (formerly Office365 Advanced Threat Protection)
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Windows Defender Advanced Threat protection)
• Azure Defender (formerly Azure Security Centre)

In addition, you also get features like Azure Information Protection and a Data loss prevention policy to keep your data safe. You also get a lot of compliance features that help you meet the regulatory compliance standards.

We at SecureThat are a team of Microsoft365 experts who can help you out with your organization’s security needs.

For any queries feel free to contact us at sales@cloudthat.in or you can fill the below form with your requirements, and we will connect with you.

Your first security audit is on the house.

For any queries regarding cybersecurity, courses, certification, career prospects, you can drop a comment or feedback and we will get back to you quickly.

WRITTEN BY CloudThat

CloudThat is a leading provider of cloud training and consulting services, empowering individuals and organizations to leverage the full potential of cloud computing. With a commitment to delivering cutting-edge expertise, CloudThat equips professionals with the skills needed to thrive in the digital era.