Chennai: Increasing threat from hackers in the cybersecurity space has resulted in organisations looking to employ more Cybersecurity First Responders (CFR) at the junior and mid levels, reports have stated.
HR experts have stated that these professionals are the first line of defence when an organisation is under a cyber attack. Also, they are responsible for investigating such attacks, apart from looking out for and defending potential attacks, they state.
As per IT industry body, Nasscom, Data Security Council of India & PwC report, the cyber security market in India has been projected to be $35 billion by 2025. Currently, more than 30,000 cybersecurity jobs are available, say the HR experts with a reported a spike of 150 per cent in cyber security roles between January 2017 and March 2018.
Further, it is reported by edtech firm Simplilearn that cybersecurity experts saw an average salary of around Rs 22-32 lakh per annum. Other jobs that are among the top include data scientists, artificial intelligence engineers and cloud architects.
Experts tracking the space say there are certified courses available to become a CFR. CFRs are trained in how to safeguard systems when under cyber attack and industry experts say, CFRs are the most skilled professionals at the moment, reports said.
Global in-house centres (GICs) and other IT consulting companies are hiring CFRs at junior to mid-levels with two years of experience for an average salary of around Rs 15 lakh.
Reports state that professionals with two-three years of experience draw upto Rs 20 lakh annually, while someone with five to eight years of experience is offered anywhere between Rs 35-40 lakh, annually. CISOs on the other hand now earn in excess of Rs 2 crore.
Reports also stated that cybersecurity professionals now seek 50-100 per cent salary hike, while the average salary hike a year ago was at 25 per cent. Some of the top companies to hire cybersecurity roles include IBM India, Infosys, Dell India, HP India, Amazon India.