The Future of Cybersecurity: Concepts and Career Paths

Cybersecurity is designed to safeguard valuable information, networks, and systems from digital attacks. Such attacks can include accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive data vital to an organization’s business operations and programs.  The field will always hold value since it’s based on vital concepts such as protection, infrastructure security, technical measures, and incident response for companies and organizations worldwide.

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• Protection Against Threats: Focuses on protecting systems against unauthorized access like breaches or malware, phishing, and ransomware attacks.
• Infrastructure Security: Provides protection of hardware and software assets such as commercial devices, data center resources, networking systems, and cloud programs from threats.
• Technical Measures: Relates to firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and identification mechanisms– these are technical controls placed to protect sensitive information.
• Incident Response: Encompasses methods that detect, respond, and recover from cyber incidents.

Being closely aligned, data protection (i.e. data security) may be mentioned when discussing cybersecurity. Though they both use technology to accomplish their goals, they share a few differences. This includes their objectives; while cybersecurity serves as an umbrella term for digital security in general, data protection ensures integrity and privacy by preventing unauthorized changes to users’ personal information. With data protection being a subset of cybersecurity, the two support one another. According to Data Dome, the following priorities of data protection are:

• • Encryption: Scrambles data to make it unusable
  • Masking: Hides sensitive information from view
  • Erasure: Deletes data so it can’t be found
  • Backup: Makes multiple copies in case the original is needed or has been changed

Moving up another layer of complexity, data privacy focuses on concepts such as user control over data, access to edit that data, and an organization’s responsibility to secure that data.

Effective security practices must be upheld across all industries. In addition to data protection and privacy, cybersecurity includes endpoint protection, network security, application security, and cloud security. Each of these areas play a crucial role in protecting digital assets and maintaining the integrity of information systems.

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Endpoint Protection, also known as endpoint security, includes practices and technologies used to protect end-user devices and products. According to Amazon Web Services, this includes products such as phones, desktops, and laptops. Combining both advanced tools and threat intelligence, endpoint protection enables systems to source and delete malware risks. A leading company that specializes in this practice is CrowdStrike. Widely known for its advanced endpoint protection platform, the company offers cyberattack response services for various organizations, large and small.

More Resources:

• DrSec: Flexible Distributed Representations for Efficient Endpoint Security
• A Robust Endpoint Detection Algorithm for Video Caption Generation
• Speech Endpoint Detection Based on Improved Cepstral Mean Subtraction

Network security prevents, detects, and monitors unauthorized access through the use of practices and various policies. This is vital for organizations to keep customer data safe and secure. Specializing in this practice is Check Point Software Technologies, which offers threat protection powered by AI and Cloud Software. The company shares, “Network Security protects your network and data from breaches, intrusions, and other threats. This is a vast and overarching term that describes hardware and software solutions as well as processes or rules and configurations relating to network use, accessibility, and overall threat protection.” 

More Resources:

• Network Security and Safety Precautions
• Network Security Intelligence Information Extraction
• Game-Model-Based Network Security Risk Control

Application security is a set of functions and processes implemented in an organization’s software to minimize threats. Examples are firewalls, antiviral systems, or routers being enabled in a business to prevent unauthorized users from entering a system. A leader in this space is Synopsys which offers ‘Easy-to-use, cloud-based static application security testing (SAST) optimized for DevSecOps’ for 4K companies worldwide.‘

More Resources:

• Why Is Static Application Security Testing Hard to Learn?
• Web Application Security: Threats, Countermeasures, and Pitfalls
• 25 Years in Application Security: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Cloud security refers to the applications, processes, and practices used to protect virtualized IP, data, applications, services, and the overall cloud infrastructure of an organization. Cloud security technology ensures that data and applications are secure, yet readily accessible to authorized users. Microsoft Azure Security is at the top of this domain, providing organizations with advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud environments.

More Resources:

• Cloud Standards in Comparison: Are New Security Frameworks Improving Cloud Security?
• The Soft Underbelly of Cloud Security
• Taxonomy of Challenges in Cloud Security

According to Grand View Research, this market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.3% from 2023 to 2030.  They state, “A growing number of cyber-attacks owing to the proliferation of e-commerce platforms, emergence of smart devices, and deployment of cloud are some key factors propelling market growth.”

As a result, developments and solutions are needed to safeguard end-user programs and devices. Only one problem; professionals in the field are in high demand, yet there’s a ‘lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals.’ There’s a demand for managed services increasing by 12.4%. Additionally, the Grand View Research team states, “End-user organizations prefer professional service providers’ consultation and expertise to minimize enterprise security risks with the implementation of cost-effective security solutions.”

With that being said, engineers, consultants, architects, and information security analysts with these skills are in high demand.

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These professionals are the ‘go-to’ problem solver for security threats or vulnerabilities, and develop solutions to protect and defend programs against cybercrime threats. Their job responsibilities include running assessments penetration testing, and managing intrusion systems.

• Skills: Proficiency in Python, C++, Java, Ruby, Node, Go and/or Power Shell, Firewall and intrusion detection/prevention protocols, analytics, and problem-solving
• Salary: USD $131,768 *
• Networking Opportunities & Research:
  • IEEE Secure Development Conference & IEEE Digital Privacy Workshop

Cybersecurity architects build security systems that may differ from company to company. According to Augusta University, they plan and design security architecture, run tests, and oversee the installation of firewalls, VPNs, and servers. Additionally, successful architects in this field have a background and experience of responding to real-time security issues.

• Skills: Mathematics, Physics, Quantum computer architectures, and algorithms
• Salary: USD $147,142 *
• Networking Opportunities & Research:
  • IEEE International Symposium on Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust (HOST)

Also known as a ‘white-hat hacker’. These professionals are hired to legally break into systems and computers to test their overall security. They use their skills as cybercriminals for the greater good by finding vulnerabilities of various sorts.

• Skills: Networking, Linux, Programming, SQL, reverse engineering, and Cryptography
• Salary: USD  $121,875 *
• Networking Opportunities & Research:
  • IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy

* The overall median salary ranges for these roles may differ depending on one’s location, company of choice, experience, and specific focus. View estimates specific to these variables at salaryexpert.com.

Find a Conference or Networking Event Near You to Connect with More Professionals in Security and Privacy

Whether you’re considering entering the field or planning to move up the ladder, it’s important to stay relevant.  Cybersecurity is a multifaceted field constantly involving computer science– interdisciplinary collaboration, and the ongoing distribution of research is vital. Show your expertise by publishing in an academic journal or industry magazine.

• IEEE Transactions on Privacy: This fully open-access publication started soliciting papers in January 2024. The journal aims to explore research topics in various related fields. The EIC of the publication, Christopher W. Clifton states, “Privacy, in this context, is defined as the freedom from unauthorized intrusion in its broadest sense, arising from any activity in information collection, information processing, information dissemination, or invasion.”
  • Topics Include (but are not limited to):
    • Data protection specification, design, implementation, testing, and validation 
    • Information collection, processing, and dissemination
    • Significant advances in theoretical models
    • Engineering tools

• IEEE Security & Privacy:  With an archive dating back to 2003, the magazine has continued to focus on timely topics related to the security and dependability of computer-based systems. Additionally, editors and authors of the publication discuss legal and ethical issues, privacy concerns, and tools to help secure information. The EIC, Sean Peisert states, “IEEE Security & Privacy (S&P) aims to provide world-class content at the leading edge of research and practice in information technology security and privacy in order to meet the professional needs of a diverse readership. S&P seeks to connect to the wider world, in areas of global importance, in an appropriate and rigorous manner, while staying grounded in practical realities.” 
  • Topics Include (but are not limited to): 
    • Data Analytics for Security and Privacy
    • Social Networks and Computing
    • Surveillance
    • Cybercrime and Forensics
    • Developer and User Training
    • Real-World Cryptography
    • Intrusion Detection
    • Malware

It’s important to consider ethics and standards as the field continues to advance. Common ethical concerns include AI and automation in cybersecurity, incident response and reporting, and the overall impact on society. Thankfully, organizations such as IEEE ensure that resolving issues such as these are a part of their mission. The IEEE Standards Association states, “IEEE SA is committed to cybersecurity standardization and offers a portfolio of standards and programs to address key aspects of the cybersecurity framework.”

They’ve put this statement into action by developing projects and standards related to this field. This includes 6 standards that focus on recommended practices for decentralized clinical trials threat modeling, implementation of xAPI, and more. Additionally, committees such as the Cybersecurity & Privacy Standards Committee meet to discuss standardization practices for privacy risks and mitigation methods. Groups and initiatives such as these push cybersecurity and related technologies toward a bright and secure future.

To get involved, keep up with our calls for participation to hear about ongoing opportunities for standard working groups and more.

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