Coding Career Spotlight: Cybersecurity Engineer
Code as protection from malicious digital attacks
Black Mirror. War Games. Ocean’s 8. The Imitation Game. Cybersecurity is all over Hollywood — and understandably so, because it’s a downright thrilling field. But cybersecurity doesn’t just happen in movies. It’s also a fast-moving and ever-growing professional sector in the real world!
WHAT IS A CYBERSECURITY ENGINEER?
Cybersecurity engineers — sometimes called information security engineers, data security engineers, or web security engineers — protect devices, services, and networks from malicious digital attacks. They also regularly test security systems to ensure they’re functioning properly. Cybersecurity engineers are the first line of defense against data breaches, safeguarding organizational data, sensitive and confidential information, financial information, and the reputation of their organization as a whole.
WHAT SKILLS DO CYBERSECURITY ENGINEERS NEED?
Cybersecurity jobs are skill-intensive, requiring a high degree of training and experience. They need at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field — and some employers prefer applicants with master’s degrees. Cybersecurity engineers need to be experts in networking: they need to understand routing protocols, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and encryption techniques, just to name a few. Because cybersecurity work is largely centered on protecting data, they also need extensive knowledge about how data is structured and stored. Finally, in order to diagnose an operating system’s problems, cybersecurity engineers need to understand the vulnerabilities and idiosyncrasies of individual operating systems.
HOW DOES CODING EXPERTISE HELP CYBERSECURITY ENGINEERS?
In addition to soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and speed of learning, proficiency in cyber programming languages like C/C++, Java, Python, Go, and Ruby, is a huge advantage for potential cybersecurity professionals.
Keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months for more blogs in the Coding Career Spotlight series. You might be surprised to learn about all of the professional paths that open up with a coding education!