What Are the Benefits of Becoming a Certified Cybersecurity Technician?

With the rising cyberthreats, the information security job market is predicted to rise significantly (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022), as there is a higher need for cybersecurity specialists than ever before. We'll discuss why earning an EC-Council Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) is an excellent first step toward a career in this competitive, in-demand sector in this blog.

What Does a Cybersecurity Technician Do?

Cybersecurity technicians are directly responsible for multiple tasks related to information and network security. The C|CT certification creates a foundation of technical skills that will enable any individual to enter the world of IT and cybersecurity.

EC-Council’s Essential Skills coursework covers the basics of network defense, ethical hacking, and digital forensics to get you started on the path to becoming a cybersecurity professional. The series not only lays the groundwork for a cybersecurity career in and of itself—it also serves as a starting point for pursuing future certifications and training. In other words, becoming a C|CT means gaining excellent skills right from the start, and they won’t be the last ones you learn.

What Are the Benefits of Becoming a Certified Cybersecurity Technician?

Becoming a C|CT opens the door to careers in many IT and cybersecurity niches, including networking, systems administration, and security operations center (SOC) analysis. These are all high-paying, in-demand positions. For example, the average cybersecurity engineer in the United States earns over USD 120,000 per year (ZipRecruiter, 2022), with even entry-level cybersecurity analysts making around USD 72,000 on average (Salary.com, 2022)—both well above the national median of USD 51,480 (Kopestinsky, 2022).

As noted above, ongoing increases in cybercrime mean that the skills taught in the C|CT program will be in high demand in the future. Becoming a C|CT can get you started in a rapidly expanding field that is expected to provide multiple avenues of growth over time.

The benefits of becoming a C|CT include learning a wide variety of skills that will form a foundation for your work in cybersecurity. Just a few of these skills include:

• Providing technical cybersecurity support
• Troubleshooting network security problems and monitoring alerts
• Applying appropriate standards to protect organizations’ information assets

Finally, the C|CT course offers a robust and uniquely hands-on curriculum. The C|CT covers a broad range of cybersecurity topics, but the coursework also goes deep: The C|CT program encompasses the fundamentals of cybersecurity, identification of security threats and vulnerabilities, network security controls, security design, testing techniques, and much more. All these skills are highly specialized, high-paying, and much needed in today’s digital environments.  

What Are the Benefits of Hands-On Training?

There’s no question that extensive benefits are associated with any academic learning. However, when it comes to cybersecurity, studying books and retaining knowledge simply isn’t enough. To succeed in this field, you need more than theory—you need practice and real-world experience.

This is where EC-Council shines. In your C|CT studies, you’ll spend 50% of your time actually applying your knowledge in hands-on labs. This means you’ll develop practical skills and learn real-world techniques to help you identify vulnerabilities, build cybersecurity defenses, and ensure that computer networks are prepared to manage breaches.  

The C|CT course offers ample immersive experience through 85 wide-ranging labs covering numerous scenarios within network defense, ethical hacking, digital forensics, and more. These highly realistic scenarios provide the practice opportunities you need to prepare for a career in cybersecurity and help you develop the critical thinking skills necessary to become a world-class cybersecurity professional.