How to Make More Money as a Cyber Security Expert – Everything You Need to Know

You have chosen a niche of immense capacity. The market size of cybersecurity is expected to swell from 137.6 Billion USD dollars in 2017 to almost double in the year 2023. This coupled with the shortage of skilled cybersecurity experts will allow you to make more money than your expectations. 

However, the question is how to make more money as a Cybersecurity expert? If you live somewhere where jobs are easily accessible, you will find the best way to do so by reading the very first hack listed below. But if you reside in a region with acute job opportunities, then you have to look for other avenues of making more money. Believe it or not, you have got a lot of other strategies apart from the first one. 

When there is such a great need for skilled personnel around the globe, why let your abilities go in vain? In this article, we’ll be sharing more than a few ideas to help you make a good fortune out of your cybersecurity skills. 

Expand Your Skill Set 

Like in any other field, people should not stick to just one role. Instead, one should keep changing their area of functioning to expand growth and potential. Fortunately, cybersecurity is also such a niche that will allow you to prosper with time. 

Several cybersecurity teams are made up of experts working on different roles. Aiming to diversify your skillset will put you in an exalted position where you can make good money and also excel rapidly in your career. 

The fundamental skills that you need to accelerate to outclass every other competitor are risk management skills, situational awareness skills, basic networking skills, and toolkit management. 

After this, all required skills and qualifications become more specific depending on the role you’ve been recruited for. For instance, a person who is specially hired to analyze security systems requires vulnerability and threat assessment skills, log collection, and active analytical capabilities.  

However, as you aim to expand your abilities which further helps you generate some extra perks, then there is a lot more you can do for it. The expertise that is most sought after right now and will help you fulfill your goals can be programming skills, experience in intrusion detection, and courses in malware analysis and reversing. 

Acquire Distinct Certifications

One way to obtain a few of the extra skills as discussed above, and give multinational companies a solid reason to hire you out of other candidates is legitimizing yourself with strong certifications. 

With the rapidly increasing rate of security threats in the world of IT, all organizations are in search of proficient experts to tackle the defense issue of their systems. With this desire, almost every company holds strict scrutiny to reach the perfect match for their company, and for that, they often use security certifications. 

There are multiple high-level certifications issued in the field of cybersecurity like the Certificate of Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP), CCNA Security, and many more. 

Before doing anything else, after completing your course, make sure to add the new certification on your resume or other career profiles like a LinkedIn account. This will show your profile at the top whenever someone searches for those skills.

Become a Freelance Cyber Security Consultant 

Multinational corporations aren’t the only ones concerned about the security and integrity of their systems amidst the growing cybersecurity threat. There are many new and small businesses as well that don’t only want to protect their data but also aspire to gain the trust of their audience by providing a secure environment. 

The only difference is that they don’t possess enough assets to spend on an in-house security team. Instead, they reach out to specialists working as freelancers. 

This is where you will come into play to work remotely for such clients. All you need to do is work individually, learn a lot from the process, put your abilities to the test, and settle your fee. 

To find clients and initiate working, you first have to create an account on freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or People Per Hour, where you can enlist all your experiences, achievements, skills, and certifications. 

Another way to find the client is to join relevant Facebook groups. Facebook won’t give you a structured profile layout as dedicated freelancing platforms do. However, sending proposals with an attached link to your introductory website will make a win-win situation for you. 

Building a new website is not at all tough and is a good investment of effort that will better showcase you and your expertise. 

Take Part in Bug Bounties 

Bug bounties are entertaining experiences of reporting bugs that eventually lead you to receive recognition and compensation. It is kind of a fun way to learn and earn at the same time. 

Several cybersecurity experts and freshers participate in such events. They are usually conducted by small companies that don’t have a sufficient budget to employ specialists to test their security systems. On the other hand, big companies also administer bug bounties to check for even the smallest flaw in their systems as much as they could. 

The biggest benefit associated with such events is earnings. The bigger the weakness you manage to spot, the more you’ll get paid.

For making money through this bug-hunting opportunity, you must know where to start from. It is recommended to join large cybersecurity communities such as BugCrowd, HackerOne, or Hacken.io. You can even subscribe to Bitcointalk for the latest event announcements and talks. 

Conclusion 

When it comes to generating substantial amounts of money from such a top-tier field like cybersecurity, you have a lot of different strategies to choose from. Instead of working on each of them, it’s better if you try to focus on the one that best fits your life and situation. 

By following one or two of the strategies we mentioned in our guide of how to make more money as a cybersecurity expert, you’ll be well on your way to achieving the reward you deserve. Best of luck!