Career in IT Security

Hi,

I was hoping to get some tips on how to further my career in IT Security. I just recently passed the CCNA Secuirty and I now want to develop my career to become a Secuirty professional. The company I work for is quite small so we do not have a security department as such. This means I do get involved in some elements of security I.E Managing IPS and ASA's performing risk assesments on new changes. The company also have to adhere to PCI Compliance legislation as we deal with credit cards. However I have only really been working in a full time network role for about a year. Eventually I think I would like to work in a Security Consultancy role. Does anyone have any tips on how to get to that level? I think it may take me 5 or so years to achieve that level and my short term plan is to get the CCSP and then possibly change job roles to a dedicated security role?

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Comments

hypnotoad

cjthedj45 wrote: »

Hi,

I was hoping to get some tips on how to further my career in IT Security. I just recently passed the CCNA Secuirty and I now want to develop my career to become a Secuirty professional. The company I work for is quite small so we do not have a security department as such. This means I do get involved in some elements of security I.E Managing IPS and ASA's performing risk assesments on new changes. The company also have to adhere to PCI Compliance legislation as we deal with credit cards. However I have only really been working in a full time network role for about a year. Eventually I think I would like to work in a Security Consultancy role. Does anyone have any tips on how to get to that level? I think it may take me 5 or so years to achieve that level and my short term plan is to get the CCSP and then possibly change job roles to a dedicated security role?

The best security cert out there right now is the CISSP. You could also start consulting on the side (perhaps with small jobs) to pick up customers and gain knowledge, and put it in
your resume. Also, you could get a federal Secret or Top Secret security clearance. The CCSP is a good idea too.

slinuxuzer

The security arena is really broad, there is alot to it.

General security admins, managment positions, pen testers, forensics, networking security, incident handling, Av / Malware, IDS & IPS admin postions and everthing in between.

It looks like your background so far is in networking, It's really up to you, but at least in the short term if I were you I would focus on networking security, unless you want to do something else or feel like you ready to tackle something broader.

If I were going to focus on networking security I would also try to learn an IDS product like snort really well, there is also wireless security to think about I see this only becoming more important.

badboyeee

What would the next level be in terms of certifications, after the CompTIA Security+??

slinuxuzer

badboyeee wrote: »

What would the next level be in terms of certifications, after the CompTIA Security+??

That really depends on what area of security you want to focus on, CEH might be better for pentesting, CCNA:Security might be good to be a network security admin.

There are lots of things to consider when choosing a career path, whats the best option based on where you live? If your somewhere like virginia where there are tons of government contract Jobs your ultimate goal might be CISSP or something that meets DOD 8570 requirements.

Basically think about what type of security track you want to specialize in and research that.

cjthedj45

slinuxuzer wrote: »

The security arena is really broad, there is alot to it.

General security admins, managment positions, pen testers, forensics, networking security, incident handling, Av / Malware, IDS & IPS admin postions and everthing in between.

It looks like your background so far is in networking, It's really up to you, but at least in the short term if I were you I would focus on networking security, unless you want to do something else or feel like you ready to tackle something broader.

If I were going to focus on networking security I would also try to learn an IDS product like snort really well, there is also wireless security to think about I see this only becoming more important.

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going to focus on developing my network security skills. I have now started the CCNP Security I may do the CCNP as well as I think its worthwhile having a more rounded knowledge when it comes to networking. I think think this will also help when applying for my next jobs as a lot of jobs I see ask for both. I have not heard of snort before so Im going to look into that. I think it could benefit to broaden my skill base as I'm only skilled in Cisco currently. Thanks again