We need cybersecurity specialists: Do you qualify?

For many business enterprises, the cybersecurity specialist is a badly needed individual responsible for securing and protecting the integrity of the company's communication networks and information technology systems. In a modern business environment, marked by relentless cybersecurity attacks on all interconnected systems, a cybersecurity specialist must have both superior technical skills and a certain tenacity of spirit.

I will lists 10 signs you might not be cut out to be a cybersecurity specialist. For this purpose, I assume you have the technical skills to handle the role — the pertinent question is do you have the necessary non-technical skills?

1. You don't like change

The world of cybersecurity is chaotic. Old security vulnerabilities are closed or patched only to be replaced by new ones. Criminal elements are always refining and finetuning their attack vectors with new scams and new phishing techniques. The security threats change week to week, day to day, and even hour to hour.

2. You aren't fond of continuous education Closely related to a cybersecurity world in a constant state of change is the need to continuously learn and implement new and better protection strategies. The balance between the attackers and the cybersecurity specialist is in a constant state of flux, with battles going to the side with the better technical know-how.

3. You don't work well under pressure Building on the pressures of chaotic change and continuous learning is the relentless pressure to keep an enterprise safe from intrusion. Cybercriminals and their orchestrated attacks on enterprise information technology infrastructure never rest, never take a day off. There is no respite from the stress of knowing your systems. The systems you are responsible for protecting are under constant attack.

4. You can't make peace with the fact that you will be ignored

Compounding the stress of change, continuous learning, and the pressure to perform is the fact that someone in your enterprise will choose to ignore your well-thought-out security directives on a daily basis. Whether it's your directive to never use the same password for different systems or to never click on attachments in an email, or any other common security procedure, someone will ignore it and that act of defiance will allow an intruder into the system.

5. You can't accept failure

Along with all the stressful pressures mentioned already, there's another stress-inducing factor that cybersecurity specialists must understand and embrace, despite how painful it may be:No matter how well you do your job—you will fail!

You will fail to prevent unauthorized access, you will fail to protect enterprise data, you will fail to find all security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited—at some point, you'll just fail. In the modern always-interconnected business environment - it can't be avoided.

6. You can't keep your cool

There's no doubt about it: knowing you are going to fail — and knowing that the reason you are going to fail is likely because someone else failed to follow your explicit instructions — is extremely frustrating. But a professional cybersecurity specialist must be able to keep cool under such circumstances.

Once a security breach is detected, a set of protocols is activated to counteract the intrusion. To be effective and to successfully mitigate potential damage, those protocols must be implemented with rationality and by cool heads.

7. You can't tolerate executive indifference Another factor adding stress to the life of a cybersecurity specialist is that often the executives of an enterprise are less than enthusiastic about establishing strong security policies, procedures, and protocols. In fact, some executives are plain apathetic about security — at least, until there is a security breach, where suddenly security is the absolute most important thing.

8. You can't accept blame when it's not your fault The unfortunate reality of a work environment where employees and executives routinely circumvent your practical security procedures and protocols is that the cybersecurity specialist is always the one who gets blamed for a security breach. It doesn't matter that the CEO clicked a suspicious link in an email that loaded a keylogger onto their device — it is still ultimately your fault.

9. You aren't comfortable with explaining what went wrong in brutal detail

A vital part of the cybersecurity specialist's job is to brief stakeholders. This includes briefings on what security policies, protocols, and procedures are in place before a breach occurs. It also includes after-the-fact briefings and explanations of why and how a security breach was successfully accomplished. These briefings may sometimes include unvarnished and raw information about the actions of specific individuals in the enterprise.

10. You can't accept that there are no winners

For all intents and purposes, the modern business environment, with regard to cybersecurity, is in a stalemate. Cybercriminals develop new vectors of attack and cybersecurity professionals find ways to close them. This happens over and over again, with neither side being able to fully overwhelm the other. There is no winning.

Job satisfaction

Of course, not everything about the cybersecurity specialist job is negative. If you can embrace and master the challenge of the personality traits listed above, you may indeed achieve tremendous job satisfaction as a cybersecurity specialist. The position not only requires technical proficiency, but also the unshakeable confidence and sense of conviction to overcome obstacles that many would find discouraging and disheartening.

And let me add: you as a cybersecurity specialist are badly needed by companies and you can set the price for your ability to master the 10 challenges listed above. Good luck!!!

Comments are welcome – contact me at Schumacher@ eitsc.com