Breaking into the impenetrable cyber security industry

Is the UK Cyber Security Council Career Route Map the sign of great things to come?

As the leader of a 3,000+ community of people working in or passionate about moving into a cyber security career, the same question is omnipresent in our many Discord channels..."I want to move into cyber security, where do I start".

This is a challenging question to be faced with as there are so many routes into this industry and none of them have a straight forward pathway from start to finish. Perhaps that is the main problem - cyber is all too often being considered like a small profession that is dealing with a straight forward problem set. However, each company has a different structure; different vision and missions; different people and wildly varying tech stack...not to mention the difference in industry and size of company including associated budgets.

Cyber security is never going to be straight forward and there are many ways in which companies and their security teams need to be able to dynamically alter their posture using innovative and imaginative models within teams and this requires all manner of skills to be used and not in an orthodox way.

So what am I getting at? The phrase do your own research (DYOR) has been pushed for so long but is often inneffective for those who are just beginning their journey into cyber security, and are faced with a wall of data - the overload of information being muddied by guidance that is unproven or outright untrustworthy. Many of us are in outcry about the issues of training providers promising zero-to-hero bootcamps stating ￡70k average salaries whilst also being the ones telling people to DYOR - as somebody breaking into industry, where do you start and how do you know what is trustworthy and what is simple to get you to part with your money?

The best solution that TechVets has found is to build a strong community with trust embedded as a spine running through it. This has allowed us to harness the experience of many military veterans already in cyber security who support our members on threir journey. This no-sales advice and guidance has proven to be the unique selling point for those we support.

However, recently we witnessed the launch of the UK Cyber Security Council and with it their new website.

One of the most awesome aspects of this website is the Career Route Map which, whilst not fully populated with courses and certs, provides a fantastic start point for those researching the various disciplines within cyber security. The 16 disciplines covered are...

> Digital Forensics

> Cyber Threat Intelligence

> Cyber Security Generalist

> Cyber Security Management

> Incident Response

> Network Monitoring & Intrusion detection

> Vulnerability Management

> Security Testing

> Secure Operations

> Cryptography & Communication Systems

> Identity & Access Management

> Secure System & Architecture Design

> Cyber Security Audit & Assurance

> Data Protection & Privacy

> Secure System Development

> Cyber Security Governance & Risk Management

The Careers Route Map (https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/careers-learning/careers-route-map/) is a fantastic tool for those who wish to better understand these the numerous pathways and provides those visiting the site with an introduction to each specialism, the responsibilities and tasks, skills and knowledge required, useful prior experience and a list of common job titles - it also provides average salary ranges which is essential.

There is more work to be completed to add in the courses and certifications and it would be great if this took a clean-slate approach and focused on some of the other amazing training available out in the wild, including the incredible open source and low cost training as well as emerging platforms and courses that are very relevant.

I for one look forward to seeing the UK Cyber Security Council grow so we can continue to benefit from having a central repository of trustworthy information forged through the power of industry-wide collaboration so we don't continue to drown in an ocean of conflicting data!