cyber Adventura

 Yesterday evening i heard a whatsapp buzz on my phone. A message from a friend whose expertise was into organisational psychology. He is about to join a start up on cybersecurity which specializes in spreading security awareness. I was pleasantly surprised as i said to myself , more the merrier. 

The ever widening of the cybersecurity discipline is not lost on anyone. From freshers armed with a cybersecurity major knocking on the doors of enterprises to lateral hires from diverse areas moving to areas of Cybersecurity risk to cyber compliance, to security engineering to identity and access management is a treat to experience.

Gone are the days of the puritans (talking of the 2005- 2010s) where cybersecurity was a closed off arena. If you are not technical (read a developer/infra ops) guy who doesnt get a foot into the door. Cybersecurity audit was the only opening for the so called “ non techies” to get a hang of the field. I have seen scores of Chartered Accountants/CPAs with audit expertise moving into Cybersecurity through audit and developed themselves further in that area. Another route was through Identity and access management. Quite a lot of non security professionals found their way into cybersecurity while getting their hands on experience in developing identity and access management area. 

The era of digital transformation spawned innovation and new way of working. This  transformation triggered more demand for security awareness and warranted deep understanding of human psychology and their triggers. Enter the professionals from the relavant field to address the skill gap.

Cut to the factory floor , the connectivity to Operational technology systems created a funnel for operators and subject matter experts of industrial machines to move into cybersecurity as and when the machines got connected to the internet.

Now comes the covid era and the demand for cybersecurity professionals explode. The concept of “ work from home” required infrastructure to be designed, cyber hygiene to be maintained, devices to be maintained and monitored. Not only employees needed to be made aware, the development/ maintenance had to be secured, different organisations had to be interconnected and global offices had to integrate. This meant room of legal and privacy professionals, Anti Fraud experts, user experience professionals, IT experts and more.

Cut to the present era, i watch students who are either persuing a major in cybersecurity or cryptography. In the earlier years this wasn’t even available. But this must not deter the enthusiastic to aproach cybersecurity as a career. Cybersecurity will evolve with time and trends and will be one of convergence points where all disciplines connect.

The advent of Artifical Intelligence will make cybersecurity even more important and will create fresh opportunities for new entrants in form of freshers as well as lateral hires. 

From business front, there will be more companies in cybersecurity space, powered by the new ideas, new opportunities and the covergence of interdisciplinary fields. 

For cybersecurity folks , we live in extraordinary times, brace for the future. It shines !