Loss Prevention Areas Where Each Career Is Growing
Several key careers are particularly in demand because of the current business climate. These include;
1. Cloud data loss prevention expert.
2. Physical store/retail loss prevention
3. Warehouse loss prevention
4. Asset protection specialist
5. Fulfillment loss prevention.
Out of the five, cybersecurity loss prevention specialists are the most demanded in the market.
Reasons for the Growth
The rapid growth in demand for cloud security experts is mostly because almost every business had to go online after COVID-19. Hackers used this opportunity to their advantage, attacking numerous systems while they were in the process of shifting to the cloud or while creating a cybersecurity infrastructure. This led to 2020 being remembered as a disruptive year because of two pandemics; COVID-19 and a cyber pandemic (Lohrmann, 2020).
With more and more threats rising every year, businesses had no option but to rely on Cloud Data Loss Prevention officers.
By the time lockdowns started easing up, people were desperate. This meant an overall increase in crime rates as well,specifically shoplifting. This is where retail loss prevention officers came in.
Application of the Career in Practice
Cloud DLP (data loss prevention) is geared towards ensuring all sensitive data within an organization is kept safe. These individuals aren’t particularly responsible for mitigating cyberattacks in particular but are only concerned with protecting data.
However, they work alongside other cybersecurity experts too to create a robust infrastructure and avoid attacks altogether. Cloud DLP experts help businesses better visualize the data they have and protect it from unauthorized access. A prime example of this is programming the firewall so that even if attackers manage to get through it, the firewall will prevent data from being extracted. If the attackers do manage to extract it, the data will be damaged beyond repair.
Before 2020, the average salary of Cloud DLP experts stood at $99,304 per year. Now, however, the average stands at $166,374 (Salary.com, 2021). The minimum salary for candidates with no experience stands at $58,635, while the maximum salary is $274,113 on average.
Requirements for a Position in the Career
The requirements for becoming a DLP engineer who can score the average salary mentioned above are;
• Having at least 2-3 years of experience
• Able to perform DLP upgrades
• Conduct break-fixes
• Familiar with health-check monitoring and Oasis ESM monitoring
• SSL certificate verification and installment
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Event Handling
• Cybersecurity-related governance, risk and compliancefamiliarity, and more.
The basic training level and qualifications candidates will need include;
• At least a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, computer science, or related field
• Cybersecurity certifications such as
o CISSP
o GSEC
o GCIA
o GCED
o GMON
o CEH and more
• Experience on DLP software such as;
o McAfee DLP
o Symantec DLP
o Proofpoint and more.
• Candidates will also need a detailed understanding of data classification tools.
The position will usually be open for companies that rely heavily on a digital framework for their day-to-day operations, but that is not to say that others won’t need their services. While larger organizations or even smaller ones that store their data on the cloud will hire Cloud DLP engineers full time, the chances are that other non-IT industries will also need them and rely on their services on a freelance basis.
How the Career Is Expected to Continue to Grow in the Future
As the world continues to rely on a digital landscape for conducting business and storing data, the scope for a Cloud DLP engineer will only grow with time, as per market predictions.
Interested individuals can pursue the cloud DLP career by looking for the following entry-level positions;
• Cybersecurity intern
• Jr. Data Loss Prevention engineer
• Jr. Information security engineer
• Jr. Privacy security engineer
• Jr. Network security analyst
• Systems engineer,
• Jr. Digital forensics expert
• Data loss investigator
• DLP support engineer
• Incident response staff, and more.