Many people assume that cybersecurity is just a bunch of people trying to stop hackers. While this is true for some cybersecurity jobs, it is not true for all of them. There are many jobs that are more on the offensive side of security and some that are not technical at all. There are also many different roles within cybersecurity and most large corporations have several different teams within their cybersecurity department. In this article, we have listed the most common teams within cybersecurity to give you a better idea of most of the roles within the industry.
Vulnerability Management Team
This team is dedicated to identifying vulnerabilities and reaching out to the appropriate teams for remediation. The vulnerability management team will spend most of their time configuring and running vulnerability scans. Generally, they will use an enterprise tool that will automate the vulnerability scanning process. Once the vulnerability scans are complete. They will create a report and send it to teams that have devices containing vulnerabilities. Another function of this team is penetration testing. Sometimes, organizations will hire a few penetration testers onto this team so that they can conduct internal penetration testing on the vulnerabilities found within the network or devices. Once the penetration testers have finished testing, they will create a report on what they were able to exploit and send it to the corresponding teams in order to remediate the vulnerabilities.
Security Engineering Team
This team is in charge of configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting all security related tools that the organization uses. This team is also in charge of handling higher level cybersecurity incidents as well as installing firewalls, IDS and IPS, and other hardware and software security systems. Security architects are often grouped into this team. A security architect’s role is similar to a security engineer’s role but is a little more advanced. They generally build and design systems to prevent security incidents and work to improve the overall security of the organization. The security engineering team is usually made up of cybersecurity experts who have had experience in both offensive and defensive roles. These security experts typically have 5-10 years of cybersecurity experience before they were able to become security engineers or architects.
Security Incident Response Team
The Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) is made up of individuals who specialize in responding to security incidents. The people on this team are experts at threat hunting, log analysis, network forensics, malware analysis, and spend a lot of their time using a SIEM. A SIEM is a security information and event management tool. These tools allow security analysts to monitor a variety of logs in order to spot any malicious activity. The SIRT is typically made up of several security analysts and usually at least one analyst specializing in forensics. The goal of this team is to respond to incidents as quickly as possible and limit the damage being done. The forensic analysts on this team will utilize digital forensics in order to assess the network or individual devices for proof of threats, malware, or suspicious activity.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance Team
The Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) team is made up of security professionals who specialize in assessing risk, conducting audits, creating and enforcing security policies, and adhering to security regulations such as SOX, HIPAA, and GDPR. This team is essential to the security of an organization. Government regulations must be adhered to in order to prevent any legal actions from being taken against the organization. Fortunately, the GRC team has dedicated individuals who specialize in these regulations and are able to help the organization comply. The compliance to these regulations is assessed by the auditors. Moreover, the team is responsible for assessing the risk of the organization in order to determine where risk can be mitigated and where the most risk is. Lastly, this team creates security policies in order to improve the security of the organization and ensures that all employees are compliant with the policies.
While there are many other teams within cybersecurity, we wanted to provide you with some of the most common ones. Not all roles have to do with defending against hackers. Cybersecurity has a role for people from all walks of life and with many different backgrounds and skillsets. Whether you are technical or have more of a business background, you can certainly start a career in cybersecurity. All you need is a strong desire to learn and a passion for the field.