Its Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so let’s talk about being an incident response analyst and how you can move into a great cybersecurity career.
Incident response is a professional career where you react to a cyber attack or a breach in a company’s security. Incident response analysts are professionals who stop the attack, assess, and remediate damage to the company systems. According to the Bureau of Labor it will grow at a rate of 35% between 2021 to 2031. That growth is not hard to believe when you hear daily about breaches in security.
An incident response analyst not only needs to have the technical knowledge to determine what occurred, but also deal with what occurred in the attack. Much like “first responders” incident response analysts need to keep a cool head and be able to guide a team of responders to minimize any effect of an attack or breach of company’s network or data.
An incident response analyst works to identify and monitor security threats in corporate cyber systems. Responsibilities include:
- Prevent escalation of severe security threats
- Provide reports to corporate security teams
- Utilize tools to minimize the effects of a security breach on corporate networks
- Perform analysis to ensure a corporate computer network is clear of threats.
- Implement and optimize security tools to prevent the same security issues from reoccurring (create security procedures)
An incident response analyst role in categorized under cybersecurity analyst. While a cybersecurity analyst is responsible for detecting cyber threats and then implementing changes to protect an organization, an incident response analyst is focused on specific security events. Success in the industry requires that you are able assess and react quickly. Incident response analysts must provide direction for a team of responders. Analysts must use their knowledge of cybersecurity and industry tools.
How do I get there?
You need to spend two to three years gaining knowledge as a cyber security analyst, gaining valuable experience. Cyber security analysts work in a security operations center managing an organization’s security. In this position you will monitoring, incident response, collecting, and analyzing threats through an organizations procedures and policies.
IT certifications are a recognized pathway to these types of tech jobs. CompTIA has focused the Security+ SY0-701 certification to cover the skills for cybersecurity roles. CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) covers incident detection, prevention, and response through continuous security monitoring, and can help you get to the next level.
Incident responder analysts start at $62k in the US and overall cybersecurity analysts roles have an average salary of $103k in the US. Start today to build your path to a successful career in cybersecurity. Don’t delay, get studying.
Talk to you next week,
Mike
Don’t miss Richard Chapman’s daily Cybersecurity Awareness Tips during the month of October!
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