Cyber Security Career Progress Check

As the new university term approaches, I’m having a mini-crisis around my career plans in cyber security.

Firstly, the negatives.

Although my upcoming university courses are around web architecture & so highly relevant, neither of them has cyber security in the title & I look enviously at other more focused courses. I sometimes wish my studies could be more focused. I’ve mentioned this before on the blog but I think the Open University syllabus is looking dated.

I’ve switched my Java course to an IT projects & change course as it’s more relevant to my current job role & I don’t think I could have handled two technical courses in one academic year. I will still be picking up Java but at a future date. A kinda negative.

I don’t know how important this next one is but I don’t yet have ‘cyber security’ or anything related in my job title or remit. And, I’m struggling to see how this transition is going to work. An agent messaged me about another role recently but it was very similar to what I’m currently doing.

In my experience, without a long-term road-map, it’s easy to lose focus, faith & motivation in a direction of travel. Exactly how am I going to get into the ‘arena’ I want to be in…how is this miracle going to occur!

That’s the negative points. Here’s the positive side.

I enjoy where I currently work. And, my work is touching aspects of cyber security in so many areas. My most recent positive contribution was calling out the outdated hashing algorithm SHA-1 is a system I’m working on.

It was set up as a configuration but I knew it was compromised so have highlighted & proposed a change. I am trying to use my growing expertise to help in my current role.

I’m planning to complete my BCS Foundation Certificate in Information Security Management Principles to provide a foundation for my further studies & blogging. I’m paying for this one myself so it’s a big investment but I’m hoping it will be a solid stepping stone. I’ve looked long & hard at the various qualifications out there – it’s a confusing market place but I trust the BCS & believe this is the right one to start with.

Finally, my role is involving more e-commerce work which is bringing me into a sphere where data theft & hacks are far more….what’s the word….prevalent? Well, you know what I mean, stealing data is one thing, stealing payment or credit card details, is the golden goose.

So, that’s where I am. Hopefully, I can add some more technical cyber security blog updates as I go along this year. I’ve read some excellent ones out there & I’ll start including some links as I get to know them.

Maybe the work world is also changing a bit. I kinda suspect that moving forward cyber security in various forms is going to be a component of every business role?