Cybersecurity is Big Business and a Huge Opportunity

Cybersecurity is big business, and getting bigger.

If you shopped at a Target store in the weeks before Christmas, you know why: Hackers swiped the credit and debit card info of some 40 million shoppers and other personal info from another 70 million.

Months before the Target attack, the payment cards of more than a million Neiman Marcus customers may have been exposed to malware installed on the retailer’s computer system.

In fact, 2013 saw the highest number of data breaches on record, with more than 740 million records being exposed.

The federal government is getting involved, with the Obama administration drafting voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for banks, utilities and other service providers. And retailers are facing mounting pressure from congress and consumers to increase cybersecurity.

Worldwide spending on security technology and spending is poised to hit nearly $90 billion by 2016, analyst firm Gartner predicts.

Huge Opportunity for Tech Pros

The cybersecurity industry faces the same challenge as the tech industry in general: The demand for workers drastically outstrips the supply. And, according to a survey by Raytheon, the dearth of talent isn’t likely to reverse any time soon. Just 24 percent of Millennials surveyed said they would consider a career in cybersecurity (opposed to 40 percent who have set their sights on being a celebrity). And most of them weren’t even aware of Cybersecurity as a career path.

It all adds up to a huge opportunity for tech pros, and aspiring tech pros, to dominate a booming niche. According to CyberCoders data, overall cybersecurity jobs are on track to increase 30 percent this year alone.

"The market demand for positions in cybersecurity continues to boom," CyberCoders CEO Heidi Golledge says. "Candidates with a cybersecurity background can expect to make $80,000 to $180,000 per year as they help either companies or the government protect their networks and data.”

Based on a CyberCoders analysis of some 450,000 job ads, the fastest growing cybersecurity jobs are:

• Penetration tester | Average salary: $81,500
• Security administrator | Average salary: $101,518
• Chief information security officer | Average salary: $161,617
• Security analyst | Average salary: $103,273
• Security engineer | Average salary: $117,766
• Security architect | Average salary: $122,597
• Security consultant | Average salary: $112,935
• Security software developer | Average salary: $101,127

Becoming a Cybersecurity Pro

As the cybersecurity niche grows, more and more schools are developing cybersecurity curriculum, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At present, cybersecurity workers generally have a strong computer science background and solid IT experience. In addition, there are many cybersecurity certifications – such as the CISSP -- that will make a candidate more attractive to employers.