What is the Salary for Someone with a Cyber Security Degree?
The cyber security field is burgeoning, with new security threats being launched every day. In order to keep up with technology and stop the cyber hackers who make the internet such a dangerous place, you'll need the skills, education, and certifications required to fight back. But not only will your emotional rewards be great for helping out internet citizens everywhere, there can be substantial financial rewards as well.
Cyber Security and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is charged with tracking every aspect of the American labor force. The BLS does not track cyber security analysts. Try as you might, you will not find any BLS listings for “cyber security.” Perhaps they do this as a security measure, against evildoers unable to connect “cyber security” to the BLS’s preferred term, “information security analysts.” They’re clever at the BLS.
We, however, are cleverer still. If we check out the BLS’s definition of a typical information security analyst’s job, “plan and carry out security measures to protect an organization’s computer networks and systems,” we see a remarkable resemblance to this popular definition of a cyber security analyst: “...you could be on the front lines of cyber warfare, protecting vital computer systems against inside and outside threats alike, including hackers, spyware, and viruses.”
Yes, the jig is up; the BLS is actually tracking cyber security analysts under an in cognito, but we have broken this first line of defense.
So How Much could someone with a Cyber Security Degree Make?
The BLS states that information security analysts, in 2015, enjoyed a median annual wage of $90,120. Contrast that with a national average for all occupations of $36,200, and you can easily see the advantage in becoming an expert in cyber security.
Just as cyber security analysts may deliberately try to hack into their own company’s systems to test vulnerability, we will try to uncover more of the BLS’s treasure-trove of facts. We pried out of the BLS these key figures we learn that several areas within information security pay even more than the whole industry’s median annual wage:
- Computer systems design and related services paid $90,280
- The suspiciously named “information” sector paid $93,710
- The depository credit information sector paid $93,840
- Management, scientific and technical consulting services paid $95,520
With a median annual wage just under 2.5 times the national average, the salary of someone with a cyber security degree seems to be a path to a secure future. But will it last?
Job Growth for Individuals with Cyber Security Degrees
The BLS also tracks trends in industries, and projects that “information security analysts” (that’s their secret code phrase for “cyber and network security specialists,” remember) will see job growth of 18 percent through 2024. That figure is about two and a half times the national rate of job growth (7 percent).
So using advanced code-breaking techniques, we have successfully discovered that anyone with a cyber and network security degree can make excellent pay, and for years to come. Is the BLS hiding (by which we mean, fully divulging to anyone looking at their web pages) anything else?
Regional Anomalies in the Cyber Security Field
Just as wombats prefer to snuffle around Australia, information security analysts tend to congregate where the demand is greatest. As of May 2015, this meant Virginia. The BLS confesses that Virginia not only had the highest employment (11,010) of cyber security specialists, their regional median annual pay topped the national average, at $106,320.
Could the BLS be keeping secret any other key facts? (No, actually, none of this is a secret. You can just look it up for yourself.) Did you know, for example, that Washington, D.C. pays the most for cyber and network security specialists? Working in our nation’s capital is lucrative, with median annual wages of $116,100 as of May 2015, according to the BLS.
Surely we have reached the pinnacle of pay for this proud profession. Surprisingly, no. Through proprietary methods (by which we mean, again, we just looked at their web page) we have found the BLS harboring these two prime areas for cyber security salaries:
- The New York-New Jersey metropolitan area—May, 2015 median annual salaries were $118,940
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California—An astonishingly high median annual wage of $127,530
ECPI University offers you the Opportunity to earn a Cyber Security Degree
Well, that’s it. We’ve decoded (or easily found) every last nugget of information buried in the BLS. To join the other cyber security specialists in today’s vibrant information security field, you have to be well educated. At ECPI University we offer different levels of cyber security degrees to fit your needs and schedule. With accelerated classes and year-round scheduling you don’t have to wait to get started on your career in cyber security. Contact us today for more information!
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Cybersecurity - Master’s
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