The overall economic cost of cybercrime is expected to reach more than USD 133 billion by the end of the year, with attacks ranging in scope from breaches of a single computer to thefts of as many as 3 billion records (Lazic, 2021). In 2019 alone, 63.8% of businesses were targets of phishing or social engineering attacks (Lazic, 2021), and these trends show no sign of stopping (BBC News, 2021).
The information security job market is expected to see major growth (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022) in the wake of these increased cyberthreats, as there is a greater need for cybersecurity professionals than ever. In this article, we’ll explain why becoming an EC-Council Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) is an excellent first step towards a career in this competitive, high-demand field.
What Does a Cybersecurity Technician Do?
Cybersecurity technicians are directly responsible for multiple tasks related to information and network security. The C|CT certification creates a foundation of technical skills that will enable any individual to enter the world of IT and cybersecurity.
EC-Council’s Essential Skills coursework covers the basics of network defense, ethical hacking, and digital forensics to get you started on the path to becoming a cybersecurity professional. The series not only lays the groundwork for a cybersecurity career in and of itself—it also serves as a starting point for pursuing future certifications and training. In other words, becoming a C|CT means gaining excellent skills right from the start, and they won’t be the last ones you learn.
What Are the Benefits of Becoming a Certified Cybersecurity Technician?
Becoming a C|CT opens the door to careers in many IT and cybersecurity niches, including networking, systems administration, and security operations center (SOC) analysis. These are all high-paying, in-demand positions. For example, the average cybersecurity engineer in the United States earns over USD 120,000 per year (ZipRecruiter, 2022), with even entry-level cybersecurity analysts making around USD 72,000 on average (Salary.com, 2022)—both well above the national median of USD 51,480 (Kopestinsky, 2022).
As noted above, ongoing increases in cybercrime mean that the skills taught in the C|CT program will be in high demand in the future. Becoming a C|CT can get you started in a rapidly expanding field that is expected to provide multiple avenues of growth over time.
The benefits of becoming a C|CT include learning a wide variety of skills that will form a foundation for your work in cybersecurity. Just a few of these skills include:
- Providing technical cybersecurity support
- Troubleshooting network security problems and monitoring alerts
- Applying appropriate standards to protect organizations’ information assets
Finally, the C|CT course offers a robust and uniquely hands-on curriculum. The C|CT covers a broad range of cybersecurity topics, but the coursework also goes deep: The C|CT program encompasses the fundamentals of cybersecurity, identification of security threats and vulnerabilities, network security controls, security design, testing techniques, and much more. All these skills are highly specialized, high-paying, and much needed in today’s digital environments.
What Are the Benefits of Hands-On Training?
There’s no question that extensive benefits are associated with any academic learning. However, when it comes to cybersecurity, studying books and retaining knowledge simply isn’t enough. To succeed in this field, you need more than theory—you need practice and real-world experience.
This is where EC-Council shines. In your C|CT studies, you’ll spend 50% of your time actually applying your knowledge in hands-on labs. This means you’ll develop practical skills and learn real-world techniques to help you identify vulnerabilities, build cybersecurity defenses, and ensure that computer networks are prepared to manage breaches.
The C|CT course offers ample immersive experience through 85 wide-ranging labs covering numerous scenarios within network defense, ethical hacking, digital forensics, and more. These highly realistic scenarios provide the practice opportunities you need to prepare for a career in cybersecurity and help you develop the critical thinking skills necessary to become a world-class cybersecurity professional.
These challenges take place on EC-Council’s exclusive Cyber Range, which plays a key role in EC-Council certification courses. The live Cyber Range gives you the practical experience you need by letting you explore immersive scenarios that teach you how to deploy your skills in the real-world environments you’ll encounter during your career. This environment allows you to test your programming skills, practice computer forensics, and learn how to handle a variety of security incidents.
Ready to Become a Certified Cybersecurity Technician?
You can find additional information about how to become a C|CT on EC-Council’s website, where you can also explore the many other cybersecurity certifications EC-Council offers on the programs page. Contact EC-Council to learn how to get certified today!
References
BBC News. (2021, February 11). US Treasury: Yellen warns of ‘explosion’ of cybercrime risk. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56021100
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022, January 12). Information security analysts. In Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/information-security-analysts.htm
Kopestinsky, A. (2022, March 12). What is the average American income in 2022? PolicyAdvice. https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/average-american-income/
Lazic, M. (2021, January 4). 39 worrying cyber crime statistics [updated for 2022]. LegalJobs. https://legaljobs.io/blog/cyber-crime-statistics
Salary.com. (2022, February 25). Entry level cyber security analyst salary in the United States. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/entry-level-cyber-security-analyst-salary/
ZipRecruiter. (2022, March 15). Cybersecurity engineer salary. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Cybersecurity-Engineer-Salary
