“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you directly to your purpose”

Nope, this article is not about passion/purpose, but about how I stumbled into the cybersecurity field and discovered my passion, which has incidentally given my life a purpose.

As a normal girl who completed her bachelor’s in Information technology, and was still contemplating about the next big step, I had no idea that an industry which I looked upon with fascination would become the most pivotal point of my professional life.

Wondering what I’m talking about? Here’s what I was thinking two years ago, when I started my career.

Thanks to my inherent curiosity about hacking and amateur attempts to study more about it, I naturally veered into a career in cybersecurity. But little did I know then, what being one of professionals I so wanted to emulate meant. Back in college, and even during my first few months as a fresher in the industry, when I heard the word Hacker. It sounded like absolutely amazing! Wow! “He/she can do wonders with technology”, I would think. This also happened to coincide with the time the world around me was also discovering the concept of hacking thanks to many headlines saying ‘breach’, ‘compromise’, ‘digital theft’, etc.

In this “anything is possible world” or “technologically driven world”, everything we want is Just a few clicks away. Anything can be automated replacing human effort. Lots of inventions lead to advancement in technology covering all the sectors and we are connected in a way that we had never foreseen. This cyber-space that we all inhabit in some shape or form, is something which emerged almost unnaturally, and became almost all-consuming. However, this has come at a cost.

Cyber-attacks are getting more common and severe and all our activities are being watched and used by cyber criminals. The situation has come to a stage where we are even talking about cyber- warfare. So, it has become imperative to put some cyber security strategies and regulations into place.

Today, there is a serious need to protect this vulnerable space. The resources - knowledge and people required to defend these issues are very less compared to the demand posed by the growing cyber mafia.

Security has become a necessity in each organization, the requirement for talented cybersecurity professionals are growing exponentially. Considering all these, I would say the future engineers have a huge opportunity when it comes to cybersecurity. Within this short span, I myself have seen an evolution in the way customers perceive cybersecurity, it’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. But there is still lots to be done to spread this information, more people should know the consequences of not being aware of cybersecurity.

Just as an example: A normal grocery has a POS System - is the person sitting, aware that his system is vulnerable, and if a hacker wants he can swipe all his earnings to his personal account?

Nobody really cares about the significance until they face such a situation. Though everything around is automated - transforming how businesses function, cybersecurity is not intuitive to the technologies we so love. And that is where cybersecurity experts are required to defend these technologies. Threats are constantly changing and evolving, so the need for competent cybersecurity professionals will also evolve. The feeling of being ‘completely secure’ is an illusion.

But this presents a positive for cybersecurity professionals like myself. There is scope for so much thought and innovation. This is a space for real talents, which demands constant updation of skills, curiosity to learn regardless of any bias such as gender, religion, industry and so on. In Paramount I have not only found a profession that has become a passion, but I also found a constant source of support, with the right avenues encouraging my personal career growth. And as a woman in cybersecurity, I’m happy to say that I see more and more women joining this workspace and in Paramount too we have some stellar representations of the so-called ‘weaker’ sex.

All in all I think it’s a great time to be a part of this growing industry and there’s so much opportunity for growth.

There’s nothing better than your passion funding your paycheque.