If you’re applying for a cybersecurity position, you likely want to know the issues that keep your potential employer up late at night. If you have the skills and experience to address their concerns, your chances of landing the position will increase exponentially.
CompTIA’s new State of Cybersecurity 2024 report surveyed 511 business and IT professionals involved in cybersecurity in the U.S., along with a total of 125 professionals in five international regions (UK/Ireland, DACH, ANZ, ASEAN, and Benelux). That’s a relatively small grouping, but respondents are also intensely aware of the cybersecurity challenges facing companies. Here’s their collective breakdown of the issues driving today’s cybersecurity concerns:
Those are a lot of factors to consider. “Addressing the big problem of cybersecurity requires a multi-faceted approach,” added CompTIA’s report. “Processes throughout the organization must be improved, especially those relating to incident response. Skill gaps need to shrink, whether that involves broad workforce education, dedicated cybersecurity resources, external partners or (often) a combination of all three. The toolbox has to grow, with targeted technology addressing specific activities and dashboards to pull everything together.”
Fortunately, some 67 percent of respondents felt the cybersecurity situation at their respective companies was improving (and 27 percent thought it was improving “dramatically”). Meanwhile, 76 percent think their company’s cybersecurity setup was satisfactory. That’s great news, but there’s still quite a bit of work to be done.
Whether you’re just starting out your cybersecurity career or you’re an experienced cybersecurity professional on the hunt for a new position, you can use the above information to tailor your job application and interview strategy. Examine your previous experience and see when you’ve dealt with (for example) data security, generative A.I., regulation compliance, and so on. Tweak your resume and prepare interview answers where you explain how you successfully tackled those issues.
In an interview, for instance, you might say something like:
“In my previous position, I implemented the use of several privacy-enhancing technologies (PET) to follow basic data protection principles that I also designed to keep our customer data secure. This helped us comply with GDPR and other regulations ahead of schedule.”
It’s especially important to keep an eye on generative A.I., which could radically adjust cybersecurity workflows in the years to come. A recent survey of ethical hackers released by Bugcrowd, a crowdsourced security company, saw respondents considering the following uses for generative A.I.:
- Automating tasks: 50 percent of respondents
- Analyzing data: 48 percent of respondents
- Identifying vulnerabilities: 36 percent of respondents
- Validating findings: 35 percent of respondents
- Conducting reconnaissance: 33 percent of respondents
Whatever your application and interviewing approach, putting yourself in the employer’s shoes can help you customize your answers appropriately. Don’t be afraid to ask recruiters and hiring managers about the top cybersecurity challenges their companies face; that’ll show you’re engaged and interested in solving their problems.
