Network Security Specialist Average Salary
With digitalization hitting the global economy, the demand for Network Security Specialists has grown rapidly over the last couple of years. Today, Network Security Specialists draw around $73000 per year towards the middle of their career. With time and experience, these salaries can go up to $145,000 annually or even more.
Cyber security experts are one of the most sought after professionals in the technical sector. The job of a Network Security Specialist is a round the clock affair. Right from planning and establishing security standards and recommending technical upgrades to regularly monitoring and auditing the existing security systems, a network security specialist needs to shield the entire organizations’ network systems. They are required to administer, supervise and troubleshoot security systems for organizations and ensure a smooth running of the security components of the organization 24×7. These security components include a wide variety of elements like Firewalls, VPN, CCTV cameras, smoke detectors, intruder alarms, online security breaches, hacking, etc. With technologies being developed on a regular basis, it is important that the network security specialists keep themselves up to date with the ongoing network security trends, developments and new inventions in the field of network security. At the same time, they must be aware of the latest cyber-crimes, security breach methods, and malware attacks in order to upgrade and defend the existing network security systems of their organization against possible hostilities.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a median salary of $92,600 annually and $44.52 per hour for the Network Security Specialists as per records collected for 2016. This median salary is the wage at which half of the Network security professionals earned more and half earned less. The least salary goes down to $53,760 and the highest touched a ceiling of $147,290 annually. This comes to around $ 70.91 per hour. The technical expertise required in this job makes it one of the most well paid and honored occupations in the United States.
There were reportedly around 100,000 jobs in the United States for Network Security professionals in the year 2016. The typical entry level for such jobs is a bachelor’s degree. The job prospects are expected to grow by 28% in this decade which is much higher than the average growth in other sectors. Network analysts are required by almost all organizations to provide innovations in order to safeguard the organization against loss of confidential and critical business information.
Please note that these salary figures are approximates derived from various data collected through surveys undertaken by employees and hiring managers. This article is only meant to give you an idea of the existing average salary structure of a Network Security specialist.
