Hire The Best Cyber Security Experts – 5 Key Considerations
February 13, 2023, 5 min read
Hiring a cyber security expert is something to pay attention to carefully. Because cyber attacks are more common and qualified than ever, recognizing the importance of cyber security is a must. If you have a business to protect, or you are working in human resources and were assigned to be assured of data protection, you need to consider the steps when hiring a cyber security expert.
1. Evaluate the wide variety of skills of the cyber security expert
Being a cyber security expert requires many skills in different aspects. So, when you are looking for an expert, make sure to know the boundaries of work. A cyber security expert is someone who has to be an application security engineer, security engineer, network security engineer, information security analyst, IT security specialist, penetration tester, security consultants, and security architect at the same time.
As an employer, you must understand the day-to-day tasks of a cyber security expert, and have some expectations consequently. In addition, if you have a big firm or a firm that can’t deal with vulnerability and cyber attacks, you should consider hiring a team, instead of one expert.
Search for someone who is experienced in the same field.
While cyber security experts protect the networks and systems against all kinds of cyber attacks, there are also some experts who are specialized in a field. There are lots of types of cyber attacks, such as malware, ransomware, phishing, man-in-the-middle attack, denial-of-service attack, SQL injection, zero-day exploit, and DNS Tunneling.
In fact, all cyber security experts protect the data against these popular cyber attacks. However, there are also more specified attacks just for cryptocurrency, or banks, etc. So if you have a business that requires specified care, you should look for the job or training background of the candidate. To sum up, instead of hiring a generalist, you should focus on candidates who are familiar with your specified expectations.
2. Decide on the extent of the IT staff
While one cyber security expert is enough for a business, sometimes you may need a group of experts for your specific needs. Since the day-to-day task of a cyber security expert is highly comprehensive, you may need a proficient expert team.
In addition to saving the business from data breaches, a cyber security expert should also report its work. So, as an employer, you should recognize the workload of experts and then decide on your needs. Cyber security is a field that evolves constantly. So another task of the expert is to keep up with new developments.
3.Decide on the working style of the cyber security expert
In the modern world, not all employees have to work in-house. In fact, there are 3 ways, which are hiring a freelancer, hiring in-house, and hiring a cyber security developer through IT companies. All of these ways have different advantages and disadvantages.
A freelancer cyber security expert is cheaper. And if you need different skills for different tasks, it is a perfect choice. You can reach an agreement with several specialists for specific tasks. However, less accountability and lack of backup are essential problems with choosing to hire freelancers.
If you hire an in-house cyber security expert, that means greater accountability and control over the work. In addition, because no data needs to be delivered to an outsider, it is much safer against data breaches. However, it costs more, especially if you require a big team that includes specific skills.
Finally, hiring a cyber security developer through IT companies is also an option. More reliability and control are the advantages of that option as well. Besides, you can choose experts who are specialized in your business model. However, choosing an IT company and communicate with it during a long-term task may be challenging.
4. Determine definite requirements
Before hiring a cyber security expert, you should have some skills. To have a proper expectation list, you should divide it into 2 categories, which are definite requirements, and preferred requirements. By determining a checklist, you can easily detect which candidate is more suitable for the job than others.
To set an example, one of the definite requirements might be great knowledge of IT. This knowledge should contain hardware software and network knowledge as well. Besides, you should look for the skills that every cyber security expert must have. For instance, precise attention to details, the ability to detect the strengths and weaknesses of IT systems by following the clues, a controversial approach to difficulties, a comprehensive perception of the way hackers and cyber attacks work, ability to detect the vulnerabilities of the system or network, and intelligence to keep up with the developments in the industry.
5. Determine preferred requirements
While a cyber security expert’s main job is to prevent data breaches and decrease the vulnerability of a system or network, the staff should also be good at communicative skills. An important part of the job is reliability, thus presenting the analysis reports.
The importance of communicative skills contains the ability to work as a team as well. Even though the job description of a cyber security expert may be specialized in a big IT staff, a synchronized team is essential to protect a system from data breaches. A reliable and accountable cyber security staff is extremely important for every business. So, when you are looking for a good cyber security expert to hire, you should also question the verbal and written communication skills of candidates.
Conclusion
Data protection, information security, decreasing vulnerability, and preventing data breaches are essential and necessary phenomenons for every business. While that shows the importance of hiring a cybersecurity expert, you should also be aware of how to hire the candidate you need the most.
This article contains the general qualities that a good expert must-have. In addition to them, you should consider the specialized needs of your company. By considering all of your requirements and essentials, you can find the cyber security expert you are looking for to train your staff about cyber security.
Main image source: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels