INFOGRAPHIC
INFOGRAPHIC
Inside the world of the
cybersecurity professional:
Insights and trends from
Exabeam’s annual industry report
E
xabeam has released its 2018 Cyber
Security Professionals Salary and Job
Report which is based on a global
survey of 481 security professionals carried
out in March 2018.
The purpose of the survey was to gain insights
on the trends in the salaries of security
professionals, their education levels, job
satisfaction and attitudes towards innovative
and emerging technologies such as Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
In this sample of cybersecurity professionals,
Exabeam found that 90% are male and
71% of professionals surveyed have a
bachelor’s degree. Their median salary range
is US$75,000 – US$100,000 per year, with
34% earning more than US$100,000 per
year. Overall, nearly 80% of participants feel
secure about the future of their jobs and only
6.3% reported that they felt their jobs may
be in jeopardy. Overwhelmingly, 86% of
participants said they would recommend a
career as a security analyst to new graduates.
The key salary and demographic insights
discovered from the report found that
cybersecurity salaries are highest in North
America. They are 50-100% higher than
reported salaries in Europe or Asia Pacific and
“
are 100% greater than salaries reported in
Latin America. While salaries do not continue
to increase reliably with increased levels of
education, it was found that participants with
advanced degrees consistently earned more
than those with only bachelor’s degrees.
Participants who reported higher salaries also
reported lower job security and salaries at
small companies are the lowest. Participants
who graduated from high school but did not
go to college, reported the lowest satisfaction
with their current salary and only 35% of
survey participants reported being satisfied
with their current pay, while nearly 40%
reported being unsatisfied with it. The survey
found that system and security admins, Chief
Security Inspectors and security engineers are
the most satisfied with their current salaries. professionals seem to be very happy
with their career choices, with the overall
percentage (83%) reporting that they
feel satisfied with their jobs. Security
professionals in the airlines and aerospace,
and non-profit verticals are the least
satisfied with their salaries. SOC/security
leads are the least satisfied with their
current salaries. It was discovered that
system/security admins, Chief Security
Inspectors and security engineers are the
most satisfied with their current salaries.
Forty percent of those with bachelor’s
and master’s degrees were satisfied with
their current pay and participants who
graduated from high school, but did not go
to college, reported the lowest satisfaction
with their current salary.
Security analysts hold a wide variety of
certifications. Respondents listed more than
150 different types of certifications. The top
three reported are: The use of AI and ML in cybersecurity can be
considered beneficial for the sector and shows
in the results from the report. Despite nearly
half (46.4%) of respondents reporting that
they are not currently using AI or ML in their
jobs, they plan to utilise them in the future.
Approximately 32% of respondents reported
currently utilising AI and ML, while 21% of
respondents reported not having any plans
to use ML or AI in the future. Nearly 75%
of respondents agreed that ML and AI can
improve their job and make it easier. n
• CISSP: Certified Information Systems
Security Professional (33.9%)
• CEH: Certified Ethical Hacker (23.7%)
• Comp TIA (22.7%)
The report also considered job satisfaction
and the results showed that cybersecurity
SECURITY PROFESSIONALS IN THE
AIRLINES AND AEROSPACE, AND NON-PROFIT
VERTICALS ARE THE LEAST SATISFIED WITH
THEIR SALARIES.
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