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What Are The Responsibilities Of A Security Administrator?

 

Summary

A Security Administrator deals with a variety of cyber security issues.

 

Job descriptions for a Security Administrator varies a lot from employer to employer. However, the generic responsibilities including administering, installing and troubleshooting security issues in an organization.

 

 

Full Responsibilities

A Security Administrator may be asked to do the following depending on organizational needs:

 

  • Perform networking and vulnerability scanning assessments
  • Install and support security software and tools like anti-virus tools, firewalls, systems and patch management
  • Establish and analyze security requirements for existing networks in your organization
  • Update and develop disaster recovery protocols and business continuity
  • Provide advice on technical security
  • Defend organizations systems from modification and unauthorized access
  • Keep an eye on network traffic for any unusual activities
  • implement application security, access control, network security policies and data safeguards
  • Help colleagues in learning about awareness and procedures
  • Make policy recommendations by conducting security audits

 

In smaller businesses or organizations, a Security Administrator may have to take on the role of a Security Analyst or Security Specialist. You will mostly be reporting to a operational Security Manager.

 

Career Path

A Security Administrator can move on to following job positions in their career:

 

 

After taking on one of these positions, you can also move on to leadership positions like:

 

Related jobs

A Security Administrator is often also known as:

 

  • Network Security Administrator
  • IT Security Administrator
  • Systems Security Administrator

Expected Salary

The average salary for a System Administrator is $59,467 per annum. Starters may receive anywhere from $28,000 to $40,000 per annum. Maximum salary can go to $83,751 (2016 figures)

 

Requirements

 

Education

Since job duties of a system administrator varies from employer to employer, it is hard to say what degree will work best. Ideally, if you are aiming to go for a very big organization, you should have a bachelor’s degree in Cyber security or Computer Science. For smaller companies, an associate degree should work. Sometimes employers will also be interested to hire you if you have a lot of work experience.

 

Experience

Work experience ranges anywhere from 1-10 years. It all depends on the organization you are aiming to find a position with.

Soft Skills

Your soft skills in communication, writing and teaching should be sharp. Most organizations will ask you to draft security policies or train fellow employees on security procedures.

 

Hard Skills

A lot of employers are looking for System Administrators having some of the following technical skills:

 

  • Good understanding of different firewall technologies
  • Load balancer, Packetshaper, Proxy Server Knowledge
  • Common L4-L7 protocols knowledge including HTTP, SMTP, IPSec and SSL
  • Checkpoint or Juniper or Cisco knowledge
  • Intermediate to expert understanding of IDS/IPS

 

Apart from these skills, you should also work toward improving the following skills if you want to move up the ladder:

 

  • Packet Analysis Tools
  • Network Protocols
  • UNIX, LINUX, Windows operating systems
  • TCP/IP, routing, switching, computer networking
  • Firewall and intrusion prevention/detection protocols

 

 

Recommended Certifications

To work as a System Administrator, you do not need to possess any certifications. However, having one of the following certifications will greatly improve your chances of landing a job by adding it on your resume.

 

  • CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate – Routing and Switching
  • CISSP: Certified Information System Security Professional
  • Security+: CompTIA’s base level security certification
  • ENSA: EC-Council Network Security Administrator
  • CISM: Certified Information Security Manager

 

 

Jake Ciber

Jack of all trades... master of none... ABL... Always Be Learning! I love what I do and I love helping people.