What Does a Cybersecurity Engineer Do?

Cybersecurity engineers are experts who implement, test, and optimize security solutions to ensure businesses have strong cybersecurity postures with the latest technology and best solutions available to them.

What Does a Cybersecurity Implementation Engineer Do?

BB: To sum it all up, a cybersecurity engineer ensures that security solutions are implemented in such a way that they generate valuable, actionable intelligence for the Security Operations Center. In addition, we work to understand client environments in order to use threat research to identify opportunities to improve their security posture.

How a Cybersecurity Engineer Helps Businesses Stay Secure

To have effective cybersecurity solutions in place, businesses need people who understand their own organization and who have experience identifying the “if, why, and how” of integrating cybersecurity tools into established IT Infrastructure.

That’s where a cybersecurity engineer comes in.

Every business is unique. Whether you’re a manufacturing operation with assembly lines and an extensive internet of things setup or a smaller retail shop dealing in digital transactions, your technology and cybersecurity needs are different. A one-size-fits-all solution won’t cut it. A cybersecurity engineer learns your systems, what productivity means to you, and what critical things you can’t live without so that, together, you can establish the necessary steps to protect them.

BB: Nothing on a network is getting done without the expertise of a cybersecurity engineer. We play a critical role in creating and maintaining an organization’s security posture. To have a successful cybersecurity program, you need someone who understands all the hardware, software, and cloud systems that make up your IT infrastructure.

What is a Business’ Relationship Like with a Cybersecurity Engineer?

A cybersecurity engineer is a very client-facing role that spends a lot of time working directly with businesses. Over time, they must establish a consultative relationship so they can understand the business better and make recommendations as to technology and solutions they think should be implemented.

These conversations help both parties establish a cybersecurity strategy that causes the least amount of disruption to productivity as possible and to resolve any issues in deployment. Conversations are also had about security issues and how a business’ infrastructure and security posture performed.

An Engineer’s Place Among a Complete Cybersecurity Team

At a managed security services provider like DOT Security, a cybersecurity engineer’s role on the team is to work with other security specialists in the Security Operations Center (SOC). They discuss tuning solutions (adjusting them to ensure effectiveness and security), address security incidents, remediation tactics, and analyze data and insights collected from client networks.

Q&A with a Cybersecurity Implementation Engineer

Q: What Do You Like Most About Being a Cybersecurity Engineer?

BB: It’s hard to say because there is a lot to like! First, the people are fantastic. It’s always nice when you can have a good belly laugh with the same people who are more than happy to bestow their wisdom and knowledge upon you.

When it comes to the job, I really like identifying a potential threat. It is a bit of a rush for me because it’s both a puzzle to be solved and an opportunity to ruin a bad guy’s day.

I think of our relationship with our clients as a way to help people in need. An organization may not know how to protect itself from cybersecurity threats and perhaps have had incidents or breaches in the past. Myself and my colleagues are more than happy, and often look forward to, ruining a bad guy’s day.

Q: What Leads People to Becoming a Cybersecurity Engineer?

BB: Growing up, I happened to make friends with people who were into computers and who influenced me. Eventually, I developed a natural curiosity that stemmed from that. We used to go to BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) sites, and I would think about what it would take to hack into them.

As every engineer does, I worked my way up through the helpdesk before I got my first IT engineering role and eventually worked as a Field Network Engineer.

Security always fascinated me. All along I’d been reading security publications and listening to security podcasts and reading blogs. When I learned that an engineering role opened at DOT Security, I jumped on it and was fortunate enough to become part of the team.

Q: What Does a Typical Day Look Like for You?

BB: It usually starts with reviewing alerts and prioritizing tasks. Then, project meetings followed by the work for those projects. There are occasional escalations and client consultations.

Solution tuning is something that frequently pops up, also. Tuning is what gives us the information we need to identify threats and make decisions on those threats.

Additionally, there is also a lot of documentation that I do both for the organization as a whole as well as for myself and our clients.

In Conclusion

Cybersecurity engineers are responsible for ensuring security solutions are implemented properly, work with existing systems, and that businesses are staying secure the entire time.

Engineers play just one part in the game of cybersecurity and DOT Security has all the players you need to mount a defense. Learn more about how they all work together to help businesses secure their networks in this blog, How to Secure a Business Network.