Future Leaders in Cybersecurity: Programmes, Skills, Career Pathways

A career in cybersecurity involves helping organisations maintain a secure IT infrastructure and protect them against cyber attacks. Companies worldwide need cybersecurity specialists, and with the growing demand for these professionals, you must have the skills you need to stand out in the job market.

At LIS, we provide a bachelor’s degree and a short course to help you gain interdisciplinary skills and excel in this field. Our students have all the resources they need to think innovatively and launch a career in cybersecurity and beyond.

This guide explores the demand for cybersecurity specialists, the technical and soft skills needed for this career, and the top courses and programmes for getting started. 

Table of Contents

• The Growing Demand for Cybersecurity Specialists 
• Great Programmes for Aspiring Cybersecurity Professionals
• Great Courses for Cybersecurity Professionals
• Core Technical Skills for Cybersecurity Specialists  
• Essential Soft Skills for Cybersecurity Specialists 
• Emerging Trends Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity
• Build a Career in Cybersecurity With LIS

Cybersecurity professionals are in demand globally. Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, and organisations must employ skilled professionals to protect sensitive data from cyber threats. In the UK, there is a massive job shortage for cybersecurity professionals – there is an estimated shortfall of 11,200 professionals to meet the workforce demands.

In 2023, 44% of organisations struggled with fundamental cybersecurity skills gaps, while 32% of businesses faced cyber attacks. These statistics highlight the importance of cybersecurity professionals and how organisations value these specialists to help them maintain a secure infrastructure.

We’ve put together a list of programmes that can help you excel as a cybersecurity professional. They include what the curriculum covers and the tuition costs. 

The London Interdisciplinary School – BASc Degree

The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) offers the BASc degree, helping you gain the foundation for a career in cybersecurity through interdisciplinary learning. Instead of learning specialised degrees, you’ll gain expertise to tackle complex problems in real-world settings. 

This programme helps you achieve various perspectives and discover quantitative and qualitative methods to excel in any career beyond cybersecurity.  Although students won’t learn specialised cybersecurity skills, you can choose to work on a cybersecurity problem in your annual projects using core knowledge from the modules you’ve learned. 

Curriculum:

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• Qualitative Methods 1A: Language and Communication – Explores thematic analysis, close reading, and participant observation. 
• Quantitative Methods 1B: Thinking Through Data – Dives into data science, machine learning and statistics. 
• Problems 2A: Technology and Ethics – Gain skills in technology ethics, legal and political theory and data studies. 
• Data Science and Machine Learning in Practice – Build computational models to explain relationships between data and predict new insights. 
• Capstone Project: You can initiate an independent research project, choosing any problem you are most passionate about.  

Programme Length:

• Three years 

Tuition Fees:

• £9,275 per  year

Open University – BSc (Honours) Cyber Security

Open University offers a flexible bachelor’s degree programme in cybersecurity. Opting for this programme allows you to study online at your own pace. Open University gives you 16 years to complete your degree; studying part-time, you can complete it in six years, and full-time study takes around three years. You’ll use specialist software, complete quizzes, and test your practical skills in the online lab. 

Curriculum:

• Introduction to computing and information technology
• Technologies in practice
• Cisco networking
• Communication and information technologies

Programme Length:

• Part-time: 6 years
• Full-time: 3 years

Tuition Fees:

• £20,952

The University of Buckingham – BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security)

If you’re looking for a quick degree that follows a traditional path, the University of Buckingham offers a bachelor’s in computing, specialising in cybersecurity. This programme requires two years of full-time study, and you’ll cover concepts in statistics, programming, software engineering, user experience, and cloud computing. 

Students will also work on real-world projects in small tutor groups and participate in group coursework, quizzes, and presentations. 

Curriculum:

• Introduction to Statistics
• Ethical Hacking
• Cloud Security
• Software Engineering

Programme Length:

• Two years

Tuition Fees:

• £12,333 to £13,875 per year for home students
• £19,733 to £22,200 per year for international students

In addition to degree programmes, aspiring cybersecurity professionals can also complete short courses to broaden their understanding of this field. 

Here are a few short courses to help you build cybersecurity expertise and stand out in the job market. 

Reed – Cyber Security for Beginners with 4 x CompTIA Exams

The Cyber Security for Beginners with 4 x CompTIA Exams is a collection of five courses to help you gain a fundamental understanding of cybersecurity. You’ll study online, self-paced and the course takes 313 hours to complete but you have access to the content over 12 months. Also, you’ll gain a certification for each course, which are excellent for your resume. 

Curriculum:

• CompTIA Tech+ FC0-U71 
• CompTIA A+ 220-1101 and 1102 
• Cyber Security Awareness and Prevention 
• CompTIA Network+ N10-009 
• CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 

Programme Length:

• 12 months

Tuition Fees:

• £889

IT Governance – Certified Cyber Security Practitioner Training Course

IT Governance offers a quick four-day cyber security practitioner training course. In it, you’ll learn about the complexities of cyber security, such as how to detect and combat malicious software, manage access control, and protect sensitive information. 

This course is entirely online, and only students who have completed IT Governance’s foundation course in cybersecurity can take this practitioner training course. 

Curriculum:

• Malware attacks and how to detect and respond to them.
• Prevention, detection and mitigation of cyber-attacks on software applications.
• Digital forensic techniques.
• Distributed systems security.
• Web and mobile device cyber security.

Programme Length:

• Four days

Tuition Fees:

• £2,295.00

Free Courses in England – Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Cyber Security

Free Courses in England provides government-funded courses to help cybersecurity professionals gain the certifications and skills they need to broaden their understanding of this field. 

The Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Cyber Security course takes six to 12 weeks, based on five to ten hours of weekly study. You’ll learn basic cyber security concepts and access expert support from dedicated tutors. 

Curriculum:

• Introduction to cyber security
• Understand terminology used in cyber security
• Understand legal and ethical aspects of cyber security
• Understand common threats to cyber security
• Understand methods of maintaining cyber security

Programme Length:

• 6-12 weeks

Tuition Fees:

• Free

To succeed in cybersecurity, you need specific skills. Not only do employers value these skills, but they also enable you to fulfil your responsibilities. These are a few of the top practical skills you need for a cybersecurity career. 

Network Security

Network security refers to the processes, practices, and policies cybersecurity specialists implement to prevent, detect, and monitor security threats. These threats include unauthorised access to, misuse, or modification of computer network resources. Cybersecurity professionals must be experts in network security to create firewalls and protect an organisation’s data from hacking and breaches. 

Network security is constantly evolving, and new cyber threats are emerging, making it imperative for cybersecurity professionals to stay abreast of the latest technologies and policies. 

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing, also known as ethical testing, involves cybersecurity professionals simulating a cyber attack to evaluate the security of computer systems or operating systems. This approach helps them understand the likelihood of data breaches and vulnerabilities that allow cybercriminals to steal sensitive data. This information helps professionals employ improved cyber security measures and better protect systems. 

Penetration testing is critical to every successful security strategy, and cybersecurity experts must know how to leverage this skill. 

Risk Management

Cybersecurity professionals must be risk-aware and know how to evaluate security risks and their potential impact. Suppose cyber criminals gain access to critical infrastructure and steal information from these systems. In that case, cybersecurity professionals should have already forecasted the impact of this breach and have a recovery plan in place. 

Cybersecurity professionals must communicate identified risks with stakeholders and ensure the team receives security awareness training that considers potential risks and outcomes. Organisations will also rely on these professionals to find cybersecurity solutions that automate risk management and mitigate cyber-attacks. 

Besides technical expertise, you also need soft skills as a cybersecurity professional. Here are a few essential soft skills for every cybersecurity specialist. 

Ethical Judgement

Becoming a leader in cybersecurity demands ethical judgment. Professionals must understand how to handle situations ethically and responsibly, balancing security requirements with privacy rights. They must be equipped to handle dilemmas like surveillance measures, data handling, vulnerability disclosure and ransom payments. When cybersecurity professionals navigate these situations, they must understand how their decisions impact broader society while adhering to regularity and legal standards. 

Meticulousness

Cybercriminals constantly advance their attacks, and cybersecurity professionals must be meticulous and careful about designing and responding to security infrastructures. In other words, cybersecurity professionals must strategise how an attack could occur, what its impact is, and the most logical approach to mitigate or prevent these attacks. 

Critical Thinking

As a cybersecurity professional, you must make high-stakes decisions to secure your organisation’s data. Critical thinking means asking the right questions, evaluating and assessing data, considering alternatives to cybersecurity solutions, and drawing data-driven conclusions to make security-conscious decisions. 

There are many career pathways in cybersecurity. You can secure entry-level positions and expand your experience to progress to more esteemed job roles.  These are some examples of career pathways, what you can expect and the average annual salary. 

Security Engineer

A security engineer develops and implements secure network solutions to defend organisations against cyber attacks. They also conduct risk assessments and identify security threats and vulnerabilities. Thus, security engineers play a significant role in maintaining an IT security infrastructure. The average annual salary for security engineers is £50,000. 

These are typical job duties for a security engineer:

• Design and deploy security solutions.
• Maintain compliance with industry regulations and standards.
• Respond to security breaches.
• Contain and mitigate damage from security attacks.

Cybersecurity Consultant

Working as a cybersecurity consultant does give you more flexibility than typical employees. These professionals often work on a contractual basis for companies, helping them optimise their network security infrastructures. However, consulting requires extensive experience, as companies value professionals at the expert level. Professionals in this field earn around £48,000 annually.

This is what cybersecurity consultants do daily:

• Analyse networks, systems and applications to find security vulnerabilities.
• Evaluate the likelihood of potential cyber security data breaches and how cybercriminals could steal data.
• Simulate real-world attacks to test the effectiveness of security technologies.
• Create and enforce security guidelines.

Chief Information Officer

A chief information officer (CIO) is a high-level cybersecurity professional with extensive industry experience. This position is ideal if you’re looking for a leadership role and have the expertise and certifications to back it up. CIOs design and implement an organisation’s IT infrastructure, manage budgets and oversee IT teams. You can expect to earn around £126,000 per annum. 

Here’s an overview of your daily responsibilities as a CIO:

• Oversee and manage IT staff.
• Manage an organisation’s data, ensuring integrity and security.
• Build and maintain relationships with IT vendors.
• Lead technology and security-oriented changes to ensure cyber criminals don’t gain access to a company’s data.

Many trends shape the future of cybersecurity, and professionals must stay ahead of these trends to remain competitive and integral to organisations and their security infrastructures. 

Cloud Security

Organisations increasingly migrate to the cloud, making cloud security a key trend shaping this industry. This trend has many advantages, such as simplified collaboration, cost savings, and scalability. However, cloud security has many challenges, and cybersecurity professionals must have specialised skills and knowledge to maintain these environments. They should adopt the best practices for cloud security infrastructures, including access control protocols, encryption and endpoint security. 

Zero Trust Security Models

A Zero-Trust security model assumes that every device, network, and user could be compromised. As a result, these networks, devices, and users must always be verified on each attempt to access sensitive information. Cybersecurity professionals must know how to implement and maintain zero-trust security models to better position companies to defend themselves against internal and external threats. 

AI and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are evolving cybersecurity through predictive capabilities, enhanced threat detection and improved response times. AI tools are becoming practical tools to defend companies against cyber threats; however, they can also give cybercriminals opportunities to enhance their attacks. Cybersecurity professionals must know how to leverage AI and ML tools to give organisations the upper hand and secure their infrastructures against cyber attacks. 

A cybersecurity career offers abundant growth opportunities, with organisations worldwide relying on these professionals to secure their infrastructures. To succeed in this career, professionals need soft skills, such as ethical judgment, meticulousness, and critical thinking. In addition, they need practical expertise in network security, penetration testing, and risk management. 

There are many programmes and courses to help you launch a career in cybersecurity. With LIS, you can opt for our bachelor’s degree and gain interdisciplinary skills to learn how to apply innovative quantitative and qualitative methods to solve complex problems. 

Ready to get your cybersecurity career started? Contact LIS, and we can help you.