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The Best-Paying IT Security Jobs of 2015
Nerval's Lobster writes: It's no secret that tech pros with extensive IT security backgrounds are in high demand, especially in the wake of last year's high-profile hacks of major companies such as Sony and Home Depot. Which security-related job pays the most? According to a new analysis of Dice salary data, a lead software security engineer can expect to earn an average of $233,333 in 2015, followed by a director of security, who can expect to earn $200,000. Nor are those outliers: Chief information security officers, directors of information security, and IT security consultants can all expect to earn close to $200,000, if not more. While many subfields of IT security prove quite lucrative, there are also other jobs that earn below the average for tech pros. Security analysts will make an average of $59,880 this year, for instance, while security installation technicians—because somebody needs to install the cameras and sensors—can expect to earn $31,680. Compare that to the average tech-pro salary of $89,450 in 2014, which is only expected to rise this year. According to a 2014 report from Global Knowledge and Penton, those armed with certifications such as CRISC, CISM, and CISA can expect to earn a healthy six figures a year.
I know that smearing 'security' all over things is popular; but isn't this almost comically similar to non-security job descriptions?
Suitably high level technical skill pays very well, 'Director of' and 'Chief Something Officer' pay well to very well, 'consultants' are either quite expensive or powerless peons who have been reclassified to avoid labor laws that apply to real employees; and installation technicians aren't quite below the poverty line.
More dice clickbait/advertising.
What's funny is that most of these company who hires big security guns are the same making all the holes afterwards for the management because it.'s toot tight, companies are paying big bucks to these people who in turn cant do their jobs because PORN must be enable for the CEO
Hello!
I am a security engineer at the biggest cloud platform company in the world... 8 years... I seem to need an adjustment =P
I seem to be missing out on a nice chunk =P
"While many subfields of IT security prove quite lucrative, there are also other jobs that earn below the average for tech pros."
Wait, so some people earn ABOVE average and some earn BELOW? Stop the freaking presses people.
you know, George Clooney.
CRISC, CISM, and CISA. Get them! They cost money though, but it's so worth it! Just give us your money and then you'll get 6 figures, promise!
security installation technicians—because somebody needs to install the cameras and sensors—can expect to earn $31,680
That's because there is no actual skill involved. Any idiot with a drill and a screwdriver can mount a camera to a wall. Doesn't require any special training or skills. This is the sort of thing that people with work documents of questionable origin tend to get hired to do.
According to a 2014 report from Global Knowledge and Penton, those armed with certifications such as CRISC, CISM, and CISA can expect to earn a healthy six figures a year.
Umm, great. Living where? $100K in Silicon Valley or Manhattan won't get you much. Same amount in the mid-west is pretty comfortable living.
That is $15/hr. I hope no one thinks paying that for any kuind of critical security infrastructure is a good idea. They could be bribed with things like free movie tickets or a Big Mac.
This story is way too Dicey for my taste.
the startup i'm at (non-security), the engineers make well north of 150k
That is $15/hr. I hope no one thinks paying that for any kuind of critical security infrastructure is a good idea. They could be bribed with things like free movie tickets or a Big Mac.
What it means is that they hired some Mexicans or other foreigners to do the grunt work of attaching things to walls so they wouldn't have to pay much. Any time you have hard grunt labor where you want to pay as little as possible (picking in fields, construction, etc) chances are non-trivial that they are paying someone who was born in another country to do it.
Where are these salaries being paid? If they're in silicon valley, that's actually not that impressive. It's high, sure, but not so much that it should merit an article sensationalizing it. If it's in say, Detroit? That's 2-3 times what a decently senior IT gig pays in just about any field, so it'd be noteworthy. I'd imagine if you check the salary survey, these numbers are only really applicable to a small number of markets, where the cost of living takes quite a bit of shine off of the numbers.
Gibberish like 'best practices' and 'CISSP' and 'CVE' and 'process' and 'compensating controls' - and not a lot about fixing shit.
My experience, having worked with security "consultants" in the past, is that many of them are of the same stripe as the management consultants from Accenture, KPMG, etc. and just fly around the country giving PowerPoint presentations to scared executives trying to sell them a packaged appliance/solution. If these guys are part of the survey, I can easily see $200K+ -- their firm is billing them out at at least twice that. I know lots of young grads with zero or little experience routinely get jobs with the big consulting firms if they went to the right school, and are immediately put into service at large companies in positions of relatively high authority for their actual skill level. As long as they don't mind traveling 50 weeks a year, it can be a very lucrative first job for an Ivy League grad. I doubt their business model is any different with IT security.
People actually working on real day to day security see a lot less than that in most organizations, simply because most places don't care about security. If you're a retailer, your insurance company just pays out when you get hacked as long as you checked the PCI DSS auditing box. (That's another stripe of "security experts" who pull in the higher levels of salary.)
I'm not sure what it's like in places that actually need real security (intelligence, banking, etc.)
Well does anyone want to do that really? Mounting cams on walls.
Heh, the best paying IT security jobs in 2015 are in a bunker in Russia writing viruses. Followed closely by phishing experts in Europe posing as African royalty.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I was making $85,000/yr in the '90s in IT. Bumping that by only $15,000 in 25 years seems kind of insulting.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
They're the last line of defense against having users installing useful tools like vi, gimp, gnu tools, etc.
Weren't for them and people could start being productive without M$ wonders like Acce$$... also, they install antivirus which is essential, but unfortunately eats up all memory and make users' life miserable -- just like the virus... tsk!
Security
Big data
Mobile apps
OOP
Client/server
Every year there's a new fad skill that people make a bazillion dollars if they know it. What do these people make 5 years and 3 fads later? Are there any longitudinal studies of what people make over a longer period of time?
Have you ever used a computer that wasn't built in 1998?
Companies need to start paying these folks pennies. That's pretty much what their worth.
Just ask yourself this - do you think things have gotten better? And if you do, think about all that goes on that you know nothing about. Then ask yourself again.
Of course, they don't want you to think that. Their making much more than all of us!
They're the last line of defense against having users installing useful tools like vi, gimp, gnu tools, etc.
Aren't those all part of systemd now?
slashdot has been reduced to dice ads and theodp's clickbait
> Have you ever used a computer that wasn't built in 1998?
I have news for you: the command line is back in fashion and M$ wants you to use their version. I hope you remember how to use those things from 1998 or else you'll need some retraining to get on par with what already existed 30 years ago.
Also, for the guy who mentioned systemd: I don't have a horse in that race -- maybe I will, just not yet. I understand you had to try, though.
or will only H1B visa holders be permitted to have them?
*ba doom ching*