How NetOps Engineers Can Man Good Money with DDoS Attacks

How NetOps Engineers Can Man Good Money with DDoS Attacks

There’s opportunity everywhere if you know where to look, including in negative situations. Think about all the shoplifting you could get away with while your two toddlers throw matching tantrums in a store, for instance, or how quickly you could cook a marshmallow over a car fire.

On a more worthwhile note, if you have network engineering know-how and you’re looking for some extra cash, you’ll want to give some thought to DDoS attacks. Not perpetrating them, but mitigating them. Demand for this skill is rising, and so are the accompanying salaries.

The DDoS dilemma

As you may know, a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS attack) is one in which a botnet of hijacked computers and other devices are used to direct massive amounts of malicious traffic at a targeted website, server or other online resources. The goal of a DDoS attack is to either slow the target to the point that it is unusable or take it offline altogether, denying all services to its users.

Yet what you may not know is that unmitigated Distributed Denial of Service attacks on organizations cost an average of $40,000 per hour to deal with. They can also frequently cause hardware or software damage and be used to distract from an intrusion in which a business’s sensitive data is stolen, including intellectual property or customer information.

Even without a data breach, the consequences for a company that suffers a DDoS attack can be long-lasting with its users and customers. The outage caused by a successful attack is not only frustrating for users who can’t access the website or service, but it also signals that the organization behind the service doesn’t have its act together when it comes to online security. DDoS attacks are becoming more complex, more devastating and more frequent with seemingly each month that passes. They’re a known threat, and internet users are becoming less inclined to cut organizations slack when it comes to getting hit with them.

Rising demand

The consequences of a distributed denial of service attack generally don’t need to be spelled out for organizations; which is why there have been an increasing demand NetOps engineers with DDoS mitigation skills, especially in the last six months, according to leading DDoS mitigation services provider Incapsula. The company recently analyzed the demand for network engineers who have Distributed Denial of Service mitigation skills. What they found is that demand is on the rise globally, with China and the United States leading the way.

China exhibited the most demand for DDoS mitigation skills, with an estimated 47% annual growth in job listings referencing this particular skill set. The US had a 30% increase. Across the globe, DDoS listings have grown 56%. Network engineers with DDoS mitigation skills had the biggest increase in demand around the world, while the need for system administrators with DDoS mitigation skills also rose.

Yet unfortunately for organizations and security vendors, the demand for DDoS networking engineers isn’t being met by skilled applicants. Incapsula’s analysis found that the length of time these job advertisements are posted for is rising right alongside DDoS mitigation demand. In both the United States and the United Kingdom these jobs are now posted for an average of 37 days. This marks a 79% increase in the span of not quite four months for the US and a 248% jump for the same period in the United Kingdom.

Rising compensation

While this is bad news for the organizations desperately in search of personnel with Distributed Denial of Service mitigation skills, it’s great news for network engineers who possess the necessary skills.

Network engineers of any kind tend to make a good living in the United States, with salaries hovering at or over the $100,000 mark. However, if a network engineer were willing to do the work to arm him or herself with DDoS mitigation skills, he or she would be looking at a raise of, on average, 11%. And with six-figure salaries, to begin with, this is no small chunk of change. Many NetOps engineers would be looking at an increase of over $10,000.

According to Incapsula analysis, network engineers with DDoS mitigation skills boast an average salary of $102,000. Networking engineers with these skills looking to maximize their earnings may want to head west, with San Jose offering an average of $145k per year to NetOps/DDoS professionals, and nearby San Francisco offering $139K. Jersey City, New Jersey is also at the $139K mark.

Finding the bright side

Chances are if there’s an epidemic or crisis sweeping the globe, there’s going to be decent money for the people who can stop it. Network engineers with DDoS mitigation skills are clearly cashing in. Failing that, you could always concentrate on shoplifting with the help of your toddlers. We all just have to find our niche.

 

source http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2016/12/01/netops-engineers-can-man-good-money-ddos-attacks/