Page 2 - Cybersecurity Career Guide, 4th Edition

START-ENGINEERING.COM
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welcome
Dear Student,
The reports can seem more like fiction than fact. But they’re all too real:
 If cybercrime were a country, its $8 trillion of gains in 2022 would make it the third-largest economy
in the world, after the U.S. and China.
 In May of 2021, a cyberattack shut down fuel pipelines for 10 days throughout the southeastern United States.
 Every 11 seconds, a business somewhere falls victim to a ransomware attack, with the biggest payout
reaching $40 million.
Cybersecurity is the field where we can meet these attacks and fend them off. It’s one of the fastest-
growing, most important fields of study and work in America. And it could be the right field for you.
Cybersecurity provides meaning and purpose. Protecting public and private computer networks can help
keep us safe in our online and offline lives.
Cybersecurity promises reliable, well-paid work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average
salary in cybersecurity is over $112,000, and millions of jobs will open up in the next couple of years.
Cybersecurity offers opportunity for everyone. Because the threats are so varied, we need people of diverse
backgrounds with different kinds of skills — both technical and non-technical — to make our defenses as strong as
possible.
Since Start Engineering first published this Cybersecurity Career Guide in 2018, there has been an explosion in
educational opportunities in high schools, community colleges, and universities across the county.
This book can help you find the pathway into cybersecurity that works for you. Learn how AI is turbocharging both
cybercrime and the tools we use to defend against it. Get inspired by profiles of cybersecurity professionals working
to make the internet safer and better for everyone. And understand why all the reasons you think cybersecurity
isn’t right for you … are probably wrong! Cybersecurity skills can take you almost anywhere, from government and
defense agencies to specialized cybersecurity firms to any company relying on technology for business success. If
cybersecurity might be in your future, our book can help you plot every step of your journey towards the job in the
field that’s right for you.
This guidebook features information and insights from cybersecurity experts at places like the National Security
Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, and private
industry. We wanted to tell the most informative, exciting story we could about cybersecurity because the country
needs the most capable, dedicated people we have working in the field.
Keep reading and explore what the field might mean for you!
Robert Black
Publisher, Start Engineering