Globally there are more than 3.5 million job vacancies in the cybersecurity field that are yet to be filled with the right resources. Those who aspire to get into a cybersecurity job must take up the advanced cybersecurity course.
Cybersecurity is the emerging field that deals with the security of data and organizational assets. Let us discuss the trends in the job market in the cybersecurity field. As per the recent study by cybersecurity ventures, by the year 2021 protecting the organization and fighting cybercrimes will cost organizations a whopping $6 trillion annually. The cybersecurity demand is very high as it is in super niche categories.
Need for Cybersecurity Certifications
The cybercriminals are more advanced in their approach in continuing their attacks on the weak links and vulnerabilities of the organizations. Organizations are struggling to protect their systems because of understaffed positions, manual processes, disparate systems, and complex policies by doing only low-value tasks. This is causing organizations to spend millions of dollars as ransom and loss of data and loss of reputational risks making them very vulnerable to outside and inside the organizational frauds and cybercrimes.
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A survey conducted by cybersecurity ventures states the following
- Up to 71% of survey respondents said that unifying disparate systems and securing them by security automation is the number one issue in the protection of assets. ● 57% say that interoperability issues as one of the threats.
- 63% of respondents commented that difficulty of unifying the security automation technologies with the legacy systems
- 59% said the securities of vendors are the main issues.
Years to come foresee an acute skills shortage in the security field and hence make the organizations bend on their knees due to the cybercrimes. In this article, we will see some of the key certifications in the cybersecurity space.
The Popular Types of Cybersecurity Certifications are as follows
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CRISC – Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control
This certification is provided by ISACA a world-renowned cybersecurity certifying body. This certification is about the cybersecurity risks which are to be treated and brought under control by conducting enterprise-wide risk assessments. It enables one to identify risks, classify them, analyze risks, do risk assessments, treat the risks thus obtained, do the risks treatment plan, risk monitoring and control report risks, communicate risks to the stakeholders of the organization, and finally document it.
There are 2 important things as per the certification, which is to keep a risk register and have the risk management approach in the enterprise. One of the key areas are for treating the risks is to put controls on them so that they are either avoided, transferred, mitigated, accepted, shared, and put business continuity plans.
Pre-requisite for this certification is a minimum of 3 years of experience in IT risk management and IS controls
- Exam fees cost 575 US dollars for members but 760 US dollars for non-members ● The exam must be completed in 4 hours which contains 150 MCQs ● Passing score is 450 from the range of 200 to 800 score
The topics covered in ISACA’s CRISC program are as follows,
Domain Topic Percentage questions
1 IT Risk Identification 27
2 IT Risk Assessment 28
3 Risk Response, Mitigation 23
4 Risk, Control, Monitoring, 22 Reporting
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CompTIA: Security+
This is another security certification from CompTIA which enables one to know the core security function skills and to pursue an IT security career. This certification assesses the baseline cybersecurity skills and has performance-based questions that validate the experience in practical and solve problems of wide nature.
This covers the topics of junior IT auditor/penetration tester role, network administrator, system administrator, and security administrators.
The new CompTIA Security+ (SYS-601) exam is being launched in November of 2020.
The exam details are as follows,
- The exam consists of 90 questions,
- Multiple choice and performance-based,
- Duration is 90 minutes
- The passing score is 750 on a scale of 100 – 900
- Prerequisite – CompTIA Network+ and 2 years of experience in IT administration with a security focus.
- Cost – $349 USD
The exam assesses the skills required to assess the security posture of the enterprise. Recommend and implement the security solutions and monitor and secure hybrid environments including IoT, Mobiles, and cloud. It Covers Governance, Risk, and Compliance topics as well. This certification can be taken to build a career in cybersecurity.
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CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
This certification is offered by ISC2. It is a world-renowned and comprehensive certification for cybersecurity professionals. The topics covered in the CISSP are the common body of knowledge that is the domains of Cybersecurity. The topics are as follows,
- Topic 1: Security and Risk Management
- Topic 2: Asset Security
- Topic 3: Cybersecurity Engineering
- Topic 4: Communication and Network Security
- Topic 5: Identity and Access Management
- Topic 6: Security Assessment and Testing
- Topic 7: Security Operations
- Topic 8: Software Development Security
- Topic 9: Security Architecture
- Topic 10: Business Continuity
The exam contains a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 150 multiple choice questions based on the performance. Exam to be completed in 3 hours and score 700 out of 1000 to qualify.
The pre-requisite for CISSP is a minimum of 4 years of work experience in the cybersecurity field.
CISSP validates the cybersecurity professional’s knowledge and experience to effectively monitor, manage, and engineer the overall security posture of the organization. This certification can be taken to enhance cybersecurity skills.
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CISM – Certified Information Security Manager
This certification is offered by ISACA a well knows certification body. Again similar to CRISC it is desired and preferred by many organizations across the world as entry-level and basic security and managerial certifications in the cybersecurity field.
For all the aspiring leaders to handle the cybersecurity team must opt for this certification. It is designed for those who want to design, assess, and manage the information security function at the enterprise level.
The exam topics are as follows,
Domain Topic Percentage questions 1 IS Governance 24
2 Information risk management
3 IS program development and management
30 27
4 IS Incident management 19
The prerequisite for this certification is a minimum of 5 years in the information security management field.
The exam consists of 150 multiple choice questions that need to be answered in 4 hours duration. The passing score is 450 from the range of 200 to 800 score.
The cost of the exam is US$ 575 for the members and US$ 760 for non-members. 5. CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker
This course is offered by the EC-Council which is one of the cybersecurity certifying bodies. The latest version of the exam offered for CEH is Version 11 it covers the latest tools, technologies, techniques, and methodologies to hack a system lawfully by cybersecurity professionals. The CEH offers ethical hacking as a study and practice to ethically hack the organization just as the hackers do to exploit the vulnerabilities and get into the systems and network to find the threats, vulnerabilities, and risks of the organization so that they can be patched and loopholes closed on time before the actual hackers do cyber attacks.
The topics covered in CEH V11 are as follows,
- Hacking challenges on Steroids
- Emerging Attack Vectors
- Enumeration
- Malware Reverse Engineering
- Cloud computing
- Hacking web applications
- Operations Technology
- WPA3 etc
The exam details are as follows,
- Number of Questions: 125
- Test Duration: 4 Hours
- Test Format: Multiple Choices
- Test Delivery: ECC EXAM, VUE
- Exam Prefix: 312-50 (ECC EXAM), 312-50 (VUE)
- Passing score: 70%, the cut score range from 60% to 85%.
The cost of the CEH exam is US$500.
Final Recommendation
We have covered some of the important cybersecurity courses and exam details in this article. The right choice of the certification and exam must be done by the candidates after assessing their interest, passion, background knowledge, education, and experience. Personally, I feel getting cybersecurity certification from online institutes like Great Learning, Udemy, Coursera can help you to stand out from most of the security experts.
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