The Field Report with Tom Field

2010: A Good Time to Start an Information Security Career

2010: A Good Time to Start an Information Security Career

With the global recession barely in the rearview mirror, you hear a lot of people saying one of two things: "I'm lucky to even have a job" or "This is a lousy time to be looking for work."

I hear that latter statement, especially, and think to myself "Man, not if you're in information security!"

For a lot of reasons, now is a very good time to be looking for work if your talent is protecting other people's data.

First of all, from the president on down, this nation is all about cybersecurity these days. It's one of the three hottest topics in Washington, D.C., and as my colleague Eric Chabrow says, you're likely to see some major cybersecurity policy at least discussed in 2010. Government agencies are eager to hire new, skilled security professionals.

The second hot topic in D.C. is healthcare. In 2009, the federal government gave healthcare organizations a boatload of money to create electronic records, and in 2010 it's going to enforce new regulations to help protect those records. Think this initiative won't call for additional personnel skilled in risk management, privacy and incident response? Good time to be an information security professional in healthcare. And stay tuned, please, for further discussion on this subject.

And then there's banking reform - the third hot topic in D.C. And while it's hard to imagine exactly how the regulatory agencies will be reshuffled when all the dealing is done, it is clear that: 1) There will be increased regulation, especially for non-banking financial institutions; 2) There will be greater consumer advocacy and security standards; 3) All of this regulatory pressure is going to require new bodies inside the institutions to secure critical systems, as well as outside to examine them.

Like I said, a good time to either start or re-start a career in information security.

I caught up recently with David Foote of Foote Partners LLC, a leading IT staffing research firm. He's been tracking technology-related job trends literally for decades now, and his assertion flat-out is: There's never been a better time to be an information security professional. "This year and next year, bar none, security is the smart place to be in IT," says Foote, who in his conversation with me discusses the wave that has driven the surge in security jobs, as well as his predictions for 2010-2012.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our recent Information Security Today Career Trends Survey, which looks academic, business and industry objectives for 2010, pointing to risk management, cybersecurity and fraud/forensics as the hottest topics for training in growth.

But what's the career outlook from your perspective? Where do you see the best information security jobs in 2010, and what are you doing to grow your own career?

Indeed, we are all lucky to have jobs these days. But we're even luckier to be in a field that's growing as quickly as information security.

Here's to a prosperous - and secure - 2010.



About the Author

Tom Field

Tom Field

Senior Vice President, Editorial, ISMG

Field is responsible for all of ISMG's 28 global media properties and its team of journalists. He also helped to develop and lead ISMG's award-winning summit series that has brought together security practitioners and industry influencers from around the world, as well as ISMG's series of exclusive executive roundtables.




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