Cybersecurity Analyst

What they do

• Monitor systems and networks for suspicious activity and security threats
• Investigate security incidents and coordinate responses to breaches
• Conduct penetration testing ('ethical hacking') to find vulnerabilities before attackers do
• Implement security controls, firewalls, and encryption across systems
• Assess risks and advise development teams on building secure software

Entry pathways

Ways to get into this role in the UK:

• Degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or IT
• Cybersecurity apprenticeship (Level 4 or Degree Level 6)
• Entry-level certifications: CompTIA Security+, Google Cybersecurity Certificate
• Starting in IT support or networking and specialising in security
• Government-funded CyberFirst programme for 14–17 year olds (NCSC)

A day in the life

You start the morning reviewing alerts from the security monitoring dashboard — most are false positives, but one stands out: unusual login attempts from an unfamiliar IP address. You investigate the logs, correlate events, and confirm it's a brute-force attack that was automatically blocked. You document the incident and update the response runbook. After lunch you run a vulnerability scan on a new web application before it goes live, finding three medium-risk issues that you log as tickets for the developers. The afternoon is spent preparing for next week's penetration test — researching the target system's architecture and planning your approach.