Security Analyst vs Security Engineer Skills & Certs

CE1028

I'm researching some options for my next career move, since I'd like to grow and bored with not learning anything lately.

When I look at Security Analyst vs Security Engineer, I believe I understand the differences. As far as certs go, I believe the SSCP/CISSP would be beneficial for both types of positions. What I'm lost on is, what type of skills are required for both jobs?what other certifications are better to obtain with each specific role? How to go about gaining those skills on your own? Job postings seem very mixed, some seem this is one role, but others seem to be very separated

darkerz

Security Engineering can fall into a few categories....

Threat & Vulnerability Management, Red Team Penetration Testing, Blue Team Network Security & SIEM, Audit and Compliance (I'm sorry), Risk Assessment and Reporting and finally "An engineer at a Fortune 500 that gets to do a bit of everything".

It gets pretty deep and most people who specialize in 1-2 of the above will find themselves applying to a LOT of roles only to find out its not what they though. However, prior experience, security fundamentals and understanding cyber-security defense and offense engagements can almost guarantee you a in-person loop/interview if you know your stuff.

Good luck!

Clm

CE1028 wrote: »

I'm researching some options for my next career move, since I'd like to grow and bored with not learning anything lately.

When I look at Security Analyst vs Security Engineer, I believe I understand the differences. As far as certs go, I believe the SSCP/CISSP would be beneficial for both types of positions. What I'm lost on is, what type of skills are required for both jobs?what other certifications are better to obtain with each specific role? How to go about gaining those skills on your own? Job postings seem very mixed, some seem this is one role, but others seem to be very separated

From my experience with my last two companies Analyst are more Business reporting and day to day taking care of the application and the engineers are more back end Technical/troubleshooting of the application or service

CE1028

darkerz wrote: »

Security Engineering can fall into a few categories....

Threat & Vulnerability Management, Red Team Penetration Testing, Blue Team Network Security & SIEM, Audit and Compliance (I'm sorry), Risk Assessment and Reporting and finally "An engineer at a Fortune 500 that gets to do a bit of everything".

It gets pretty deep and most people who specialize in 1-2 of the above will find themselves applying to a LOT of roles only to find out its not what they though. However, prior experience, security fundamentals and understanding cyber-security defense and offense engagements can almost guarantee you a in-person loop/interview if you know your stuff.

Good luck!

Any suggestions on how to get some of these skills on your own (Threat & Vulnerability Management, Blue Team Network Security & SIEM)? I know SANS offers courses, but may be too soon for that

NetworkNewb

CE1028 wrote: »

Any suggestions on how to get some of these skills on your own (Threat & Vulnerability Management, Blue Team Network Security & SIEM)? I know SANS offers courses, but may be too soon for that

I think those are some skill most people build in the Security Analyst position and then move into the Security Engineer roles. As a security analyst myself, I do some of those things but don't go really deep into those areas. Get to do some of the grunt work as an analyst.

As far as getting the skills on your own, things I would recommend is getting a cert like sscp/cissp, getting good at some scripting (I use powershell alot), and understanding logs and network traffic (wireshark would be good practice for that, they have cert too. WCNA I believe). You have a CCNP so guessing you have a decent understanding of the network side