Five essential qualities of a cyber security professional

Cyber security is a fascinating, challenging, and vigorous profession, not for the complacent nor the faint hearted. Every employer wants to hire the best candidates with the most potential to become even greater and evolve alongside this young and tumultuous craft. 

Here are five essential qualities that every cyber security professional should strive to cultivate, and that employers should keep an eye for. 

Trustworthiness 

A cyber security professional is like a doctor for computers. Most of the time a doctor cannot properly diagnose a patient if the patient does not disclose all their past health related matters. 

 You would, or at least should, trust your doctor with even your most embarrassing health related issues and habits. 

As someone who works in cybersecurity, whatever embarrassing or personal secrets they may uncover must remain a secret even from their closest friends and family. Unless it surpasses the threshold of human and animal harm or pedophilia, then the rules of confidentiality do not apply. 

Responsibility 

A person who works in cybersecurity must shoulder great responsibility towards their organization. They are what stands in between their company’s secrets a big scary world of malicious actors and cyber-criminals.  

If they cannot take responsibility and sacrifice their comfort and time for the greater good of their peers and their company, then they will not go far in terms of networking within their career, and could bring their bosses a lot of heartache, which as we know, tends to trickle down to the rest of the employees.  

Also, they’ll be fired. 

Determination 

Cybersecurity is tough to learn, and even tougher to master. If the student is not able to push through difficulties and complexities, and persevere to better things, then they will never achieve mastery within their field. 

In a rigorous, analytical, and scientific field such as this, it takes spunk to stay afloat in a turbulent and ever-changing cyberworld. 

Continuous learner 

A cyber security professional’s education never ends. In fact, it is the only constant. Cybersecurity as a field is like one giant free-for-all battle-royal arms-race but with computer commands instead of weapons of mass destruction. Although the damage may well be as bad on a digital level, and mistakes may bring a company to its knees. 

Skeptical 

If cyber space was the Game of Thrones, cyber security practitioners would be the Night’s Watch. If they don’t patrol beyond the wall on a regular basis, you can expect Wilding raids to be far more devastating.  

In all seriousness, however, question everything, trust no one. This is a good attitude to adopt if one wishes to pursue a career in cybersecurity.  

Passiveness is an unacceptable trait within this field. A cyber security professional must always have a keen eye on their surroundings, even if nothing seems amiss in the moment.