Customer spotlight:

A day in the life of a Business Information Security Analyst

We’re shining a light on what the typical day looks like across the different job roles in the world of cybersecurity.

Customer spotlight:

Euan Doyle

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BUSINESS INFORMATION SECURITY ANALYST

The day-to-day experience can vary wildly from one security professional to the next. We may face similar threats and have many of the same tools at our disposal, but we’re shining a light on what the typical day looks like across the different job roles in the world of cybersecurity.

To kick off the New Perimeters job profile series, we spoke with Euan Doyle, a Business Information Security Analyst from Aberdeen to discuss starting out, measuring success, and what makes up a ‘normal’ day. Here’s what he had to say:

Getting started in cybersecurity

I’m a musician. A bagpiper. It’s a strange one, I know, but that’s how I started my career. For a couple of years after leaving school, I taught and performed pipe music.

But after finishing my music diploma, I knew that there are only so many hours in the week and only so many people you can teach, so perhaps I should look to learn another skill too. It was my dad who suggested cyber. From the outside, it looked interesting and seemed like an industry on the up and up, so I applied for a cyber security course at Robert Gordon University. At that time, I didn’t have much technical knowledge, but after a chance meeting with the head of the cybersecurity course on a university open day, I felt it was something I could potentially break into.

Within a few weeks, I had signed up to a five-year course with the option of a placement after the second year. Fast forward and here I am, 2 years into the job and I’ve just finished my third year at university. My work placement transitioned into a full-time role which I still balance with my full-time studies.

What does a ‘normal’ day look like?

No two days are ever the same. It’s common for people new to this role to ask, ‘what are my tasks?’ and the honest answer is, they’re hard to define. It depends on what’s going on in the business at that time and who you know and work with regularly. While we have great security tools in place to flag suspicious activity, a lot of the time I’m dealing with situations where I must trust my gut instincts.

A task I have grown into managing throughout my time here is the security training and phishing simulations across the company. Just yesterday, I issued approvals for a new training campaign that we're running for our operations team in Iraq. We aim to carry out targeted team training quarterly in shorter bites, 20 minutes here and there, to try and keep people more engaged than once a year.

I’ll usually spend part of my day managing our external support teams and service providers, too. I manage our Security Exceptions process which involves vetting and approving requests from the business.

For me, it’s a case of making sure we have the right information from our users, asking the why to their wants and finding out if there are possibly other, more secure, alternatives of providing a solution.

IOC checks are always an ongoing task. We’re part of a service organization forum, so we often gather and share a lot of important information with our industry peers. We've got a shared spreadsheet that’s automatically tracked and always receive possible indicators internally from our ever-growing network of Security Champions. I just need to make sure that our email security and firewall security is all ticked off, blocked and managed.

Measuring success

Being part of the service organization forum means that we are constantly sharing information with our peers. It allows us to compare the results of our training programs over time to see how we trend against each other.

As well as comparing ourselves to others, we also look back at how we have performed in these areas internally over the last few years to make sure we’re always improving.

We’re also passionate about data governance. We want to ensure our users understand risk, but also the appropriate management of company or client data, embed best practices and build an internal security culture from the ground up. It's like a football team. You've got 40,000 employees, and if one of them doesn't know what phishing or business email compromise is, you're at risk.

YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WEAKEST PLAYER.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting a career in cybersecurity?

Firstly, I would say don’t worry if you don’t have a relevant degree. You can always take a CompTIA Security+ qualification, for example, to build your knowledge and get that start in the industry. If you do need or want to completely retrain, then rotational graduate schemes can be a good option after completing a degree.

Placements are also incredibly valuable, so if the opportunity to work whilst studying arises, I would always take it as early as possible. Networking is a must.

I’VE ALWAYS FELT THAT YOUR QUALIFICATIONS ARE HOLLOW UNLESS YOU CAN FILL THEM WITH A PERSONALITY.

So, get on LinkedIn, build connections, introduce yourself and ask questions. Ultimately though, it’s the insider knowledge that’s important. Learning all you can about the industry and your business is going to serve you better than any degree. So, if you have the opportunity to take on a junior cybersecurity role and work across different areas, absolutely take it. There’s nothing like learning on the job.

Whatever route you take, remember that you only know what you know in that moment. So, be honest about your understanding and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

If you could liken your role to a fictional spy or superhero, who would it be?

In the context of information security, it would have to be Sherlock Homes. As soon as a phishing email comes through, just get Sherlock to find out who sent it!