How important is cyber security in America?

Having been directly or indirectly working in the security field for roughly 20 years now, I would say the conversation around and importance of cybersecurity continues to grow and evolve.

When I first started, even getting a company interested in understanding and prioritizing their security profile was extremely challenging. At that time, only the very largest and most heavily-regulated industries (financial institutions, healthcare organizations, critical infrastructure providers, etc.) were generally doing much of anything related to security. Almost all of the same security threats/challenges we face today existed back then (DoS, theft of IP, business disruption, loss of personal information, etc.), but the specific technical nature of the threats, and the level of organization/sophistication of threat-actors, has definitely changed.

As businesses of all sizes, across all industries, become increasingly reliant upon software/technology of some sort, the need for improvements around cybersecurity is only growing. Even smaller local businesses likely have much more of a technology and data footprint (think Square credit card readers and iPad POS systems tied to customer rewards and marketing/social networking programs) than ever before. Large companies like Equifax, Marriott, or Target that make national or even global headlines with data breaches may still have the most to lose when it comes to cybersecurity, but that doesn't mean the corner bakery in your local town square isn't also vulnerable these days.

Anyone interested in a career in cybersecurity definitely has more and more options available to them today, and options will likely continue to increase for some time. That could be a career in law enforcement focusing on investigations or prevention of cybersecurity threats at a local/national level, a role with a software company building their own platforms/services to combat particular cybersecurity threats and trying to stay ahead of the threat actors, working in professional services/consulting practices that help companies assess or improve their internal cybersecurity functions, and/or a job as an internal cybersecurity employee that works directly within a company to establish policies and controls, and implement tools to manage risk. Careers can range from very technical (software development, scripting, architecture) to more business-focused (analyst positions, project/program managers, compliance managers, etc.).

The key, as with any career, is finding a potential career path that is both interesting and rewarding to you personally, and ideally gives you the opportunity to continue to grow and evolve your personal skillset over time, to continue to stay relevant as the day-to-day specifics of security continue to evolve.

I recently shifted focus to cyber security and my move was very organic, i was in IT and software engineering for the bulk of my career, i really like this area and almost feel like i have found my place in the IT space. This field is very engaging and there are lot of opportunities and challenges. With most of businesses going to be digitized in the next few years this field will generate more opportunities and also currently there is a shortage of cyber security professionals. so it is something to consider.

Its also very fulfilling and advisory.

Sabina, Cybersecurity is critical in America as in all other countries. This is the set of capabilities that protect all our information (our personal information, companies' business information and even our government's information) from attack by people with nefarious goals. In my own work as a privacy professional, I work closely with my security colleague to ensure that security controls are in place to protect the personal data of all the people we interact with.

In your own city of Portland, you'l l find companies such as Tripwire whose entire business model is based on developing software to help other companies defeat cyber attacks. New Relic is another local company creating solutions to help businesses monitor their applications and infrastructure so that they can detect and respond to cyber-attacks.

Aside from college classes that can prepare you for careers in this field, you can get a good introduction to this field through online classes such as coursera.org.

This is a very rewarding field to enter. Best of luck to you.

Cyber security is at the top of the scale in importance and will only continue to become more important. The world continues to leverage technology to a greater degree every day. As we put more of our personal information, financial information, health information, military defense data, and all other data that needs to be completely secure onto digital platforms the need for extremely effective cyber security grows. Additionally, cyber threats continue to evolve and get smarter making this a continuously evolving field as the solutions of today will have vulnerabilities tomorrow if cyber security is not continuously being improved upon to anticipate these new threats and address them.

I would recommend finding a mentor. Find someone who is versed in this field and ask if you can shadow them and learn from them. Make sure that when you choose who will mentor you that you know this person has the right intentions and is driven to be at the top of this field as they will be a better resource than someone who is only partially invested in this subject. Also network and imbed yourself in a community of like minded people in which all of you can help each other grow.

Cyber Security is the new cool profession, similarly to when Doctors or Lawyers were the professions when I was growing up! If you like coding and you like solving puzzles this is the career for you. Cyber Security has so many different aspects and can be applied at so many levels. There is firewall, phishing, network, secrets/password protection, encryption, the list is quite exhaustive.

With technology inundating every aspect of our lives we need cyber security more so than ever. What we thought used to be stuff of movies, is now real in our every day lives. With the expansive growth of the internet of things, every day appliances such as the thermostat that you can remotely set the home temperature, or the garage door opener app on your phone, or the video camera to watch your dog while you are away, are all possible entry points for others to hack into our privacy. With so many ways that technology has improved our lives, there are so many ways that hackers can take advantage of and be harmful to our well being and safety. Cyber security, data mining, and data science, are three professions that are and will continue to be in high demand for the next several decades.