COVID-19’s Impact: The Growing Demand for Cyber Security Personnel

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing office workers around the world to work from home, organisations have faced a cyber security challenge like no other.

Entire systems had to be overhauled, additional controls have been adopted to prevent cyber attacks and new software has been installed to help employees collaborate virtually.

But these weren’t one-off tasks. Organisations’ suddenly expanded networks must be constantly monitored to ensure they work as intended and to identify vulnerabilities before cyber criminals exploit them.

As a result, many organisations have been required to appoint new IT and cyber security personnel, which is good news for those looking for work – particularly as you don’t need extensive experience to get started.

Cyber security jobs provide a stable career

The economic damage caused by COVID-19 means that many people have had to rethink their careers. Indeed, a Totaljobs study found that two thirds of workers have used the pandemic to evaluate their jobs.

Whatever their motivation – be it a lack of opportunities in their current line of work or a desire for something more lucrative – a career in cyber security is ideal.

Not only is cyber security more important to business than ever but there is also a huge demand for qualified staff.

With the right qualifications, you could have a career for life and have plenty of opportunities to advance into senior roles.

Working in cyber security may seem like a big change – and one that requires in-depth technical knowledge – but you might be surprised at how many transferable skills you already have.

Granted, you may not understand yet how these skills apply, but it will become apparent as you study.

Where do you start?

Cyber security is a broad field, so your first task is to identify what type of work you’re interested in.

You can get help doing that with our cyber security careers guide, which includes the most in-demand positions and the skills required to do them.

It also outlines which qualifications are relevant to each job role. So, for example, if you’re interested in becoming a penetration tester, you should take the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Training Course, and if you’re interested in information security auditing, you should take the Certified ISO 27001 ISMS Lead Auditor Training Course.

Whatever you decide, we have the training course and resources to help you launch your cyber security career.