You Can Be Anything › All careers › Security, Defense & Emergency Services
Cyber Defense Analyst
Monitors and protects networks in real-time — detecting and neutralizing cyber threats as they happen.
Did you know?
A 2007 University of Maryland study found internet-connected computers faced a hacking attempt about every 39 seconds.
How subjects help
- Computer Science: Watch network traffic for signs of an attack and lock out intruders quickly.
- Mathematics: Understand how codes scramble data so stolen messages can't be read.
A famous name
Dorothy E. Denning: Published an early model for automatically detecting computer intrusions in 1987, a basis of cyber defence tools.
Try it yourself: Spot the tricks in scam messages
- Read each made-up message.
- Look for five tricks: Authority (pretending to be someone important), Urgency (act now!), Emotion (fear, excitement or curiosity), Scarcity (only a few left!) and Current events (linked to the news or the season).
- Write which tricks each message uses. Some use more than one.
- Write what you would really do instead, such as asking an adult to check with the company through its official website, never the link in the message.
Cyber defence analysts study phishing messages every day to spot the tricks, warn people and block them before anyone clicks.
Adapted from National Cyber Security Centre: Phishing scams: how to spot a scam email, text message or call.
Also try: Run a mini survey.
Known for it in
USA, Israel, UK, Estonia, Australia