Who is a Cybersecurity Technician?

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Who is a Cybersecurity Technician?

Who is a Cybersecurity Technician 1

Cybersecurity technicians are professionals who protect computer programs, systems, and networks from cybercriminals. The latter unlawfully use information technology to obtain passwords, violate copyrights, steal valuable materials, steal credit card data, bank accounts, and commit other crimes on the Internet.

Experts who counteract such criminal actions are also called cybersecurity engineers. They develop and implement various network solutions to secure data from hackers.

What are the Responsibilities of a Cybersecurity Technician?

  • Testing programs, applications, and services for penetration, i.e., identifying threats and vulnerabilities.
  • Installation, configuration, and maintenance of networks.
  • Creating data protection strategies and updating a set of measures to prevent breaches.
  • Fixing security-related network errors.

To respond more quickly and effectively to new weaknesses in products and networks, cybersecurity engineers work in teams with other IT specialists, improving computer codes, etc.

What Skills Should a Cybersecurity Technician Have?

Among the technical, «hard» skills, coding, understanding the specifics of different operating systems, and the ability to work with them and detect intrusions should be mentioned first. Additionally, for all technical fields, mathematical skills play a crucial role, namely understanding linear algebra, cryptography, and other mathematical concepts.

Regardless of whether you work as an employee in a large company or freelance, you will need a set of «soft» skills.

  • Teamwork. When working on serious projects, the ability to actively listen and make joint decisions is important.
  • Problem-Solving. This skill is fundamental for engineers working in the IT field. You'll have to choose the optimal way to complete tasks from several options and develop and implement ideas to avoid the same problems in the future.
  • Analytical Thinking. Cybersecurity technicians need to collect, summarize, and analyze various data. Analysis is necessary during network breach investigations, security audits, and assessing the likelihood of new risks.
  • Creative Thinking. Despite being a purely technical specialization, cybersecurity technicians can apply creativity to solve problems in non-obvious or completely innovative ways. Thanks to the engineer's creativity, a company can constantly generate new ideas regarding network or product protection against cyberattacks.

The position of a cybersecurity technician is often combined with other IT specializations. Therefore, the more technical and soft skills you have, the higher your chances of getting a prestigious job in a specialized company.

How to Become a Cybersecurity Technician?

First, determine the area of activity, as there are several in cybersecurity. This could be risks and compliance, data leakage prevention, architecture, incident response, etc. Depending on the field, choose a training program at a higher education institution or certified courses.

One of the best ways to start your career is to go to university and earn a bachelor's degree. In addition to cybersecurity, you can study information security or any other related field. Students usually study computer engineering, network communications, and social network infrastructure. To find yourself in cyber terrorism, cryptology, identity technologies, or other unique fields of cybersecurity, aim for a master's degree.

Obtaining a diploma is not the final stage of preparation for participation in interesting and highly paid projects. It's great if you can complete an accredited program and get a certificate that will confirm your knowledge, skills, and competencies for employers. We advise you to try your hand at an internship at the company. This will allow you to work on real tasks for the first time.

It is the cybersecurity engineer who maintains the various online systems and ensures that they are resistant to new threats. The competence and integrity of a specialist are very important for any organization. To keep track of potential risks, the technician must constantly test systems and ensure that protective measures are updated.

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How to Start a Career in QA Testing?

How to Start a Career in QA Testing

Start a Career in QA

A QA tester is a specialist responsible for ensuring the quality of computer programs, video games, websites, and various digital products. Unlike a quality control tester, a quality assurance tester identifies flaws during the product development stage rather than after its release to the market. They track the causes of errors and report them to the relevant team members who can fix them.

QA testers check software using manual methods. However, specialists also use automated testing methods to save time on tasks.

They can attempt to hack the system, generate an error, and all this so that the end user does not face a similar problem in the future.

Roles of a Quality Assurance Tester

The role of a QA tester depends on the company and the actual project they are working on. The tester develops a project plan, sets quality standards, and determines the method of work manual, machine, or mixed. It is much simpler to fix errors at the beginning or in the middle of development than after the software is finished.

Other responsibilities of a quality assurance tester include:

  • Identify system boundaries and test software functionality.
  • Identifying functional errors in digital products before their release.
  • Writing code for automated tests.
  • Researching new testing processes and technologies to enhance effectiveness.
  • Reviewing user interfaces and feedback, analyzing product features.
  • Work with QA engineers to create effective test plans and implementation strategies.

Thus, the job of a QA tester is to work with developers to evaluate risks, identify gaps in the functionality of the product, and eliminate them during the development period.

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Which type of QA testing is best?

There are various types of testing. Not all of them are necessary for every project, but a qualified QA tester ideally should be proficient in these methods.

  • Unit Testing Breaking the product into small, unique parts called modules to simplify testing.
  • Performance analysis Evaluation of product performance using different software loads.
  • Performance testing evaluates the concurrent operation of different parts of the program code.
  • Load Testing Evaluating the correctness of the product's operation under extreme conditions.
  • Functional Testing Ensuring the functionality of elements in software meets defined standards.
  • System Testing Comprehensive evaluation of functionality to understand how the product works in real conditions.
  • Usability Testing Evaluating user convenience and the correctness of task execution.
  • Mobile Testing Ensuring product usability on mobile devices by considering screen size, memory usage, battery consumption, and the likelihood of receiving a phone call while using the mobile application.

Security Testing and Regression Testing Essential final stages involve verifying product behavior after changes to prevent new defects after improvements.

What to Master for a QA Tester?

First and foremost, a QA tester is responsible for adhering to standards. QA is the «middleman» between developers and users.

So, to summarize. To become a quality assurance tester, you must have a specialized technical education — this is the first option. The next option is to complete special training courses in testing, which will lead you to the profession faster. Get ready to practice and hone your skills during your entire professional life, since everything in IT is changing at a rapid speed.

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