Cybersecurity Certification Center: September 2025

Saturday, September 20, 2025

The AI Nexus - “Cybersecurity” (September 2025)

Colleagues, the AI and Cybersecurity sectors are projected to experience double-digit growth rates over the next 5+ years. Tech professionals who want to achieve even higher career growth will focus on the nexus of these technologies. Indeed, there are significant technical challenges and opportunities at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.

Challenges:

Adversarial AI Attacks: AI models themselves can be a target. Adversaries can manipulate data to confuse a model, poison a training dataset, or trick a model into making a bad prediction. This is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game, as security teams must continuously develop new ways to defend against attacks that target the very systems they rely on.
Data Quality and Quantity: Effective AI models require vast amounts of high-quality, labeled data. For cybersecurity, this means collecting and labeling data on network traffic, malware, and other threats. This process is time-consuming, expensive, and often involves handling sensitive information.
Complexity and Explainability: AI models, especially deep learning models, can be "black boxes." It can be difficult for a human analyst to understand how an AI model arrived at a particular conclusion, such as why it flagged a specific file as malicious. This lack of transparency can hinder investigations and make it hard to trust the model's output.

Opportunities:

Proactive Threat Hunting: AI can automate the process of sifting through massive datasets to find subtle, emerging threats that would be impossible for humans to spot. AI-powered threat hunting platforms can analyze behavior patterns and identify anomalies, allowing security teams to find and neutralize threats before they can cause significant damage.
Automated Incident Response: When a security incident occurs, AI can automate initial response actions, such as isolating an infected device or blocking malicious IP addresses. This rapid, automated response can significantly reduce the time it takes to contain a threat, minimizing its impact.
Real-time Anomaly Detection: Instead of relying on static, signature-based detection, AI can learn what "normal" behavior looks like for a user, a network, or a system. It can then flag any deviation from this baseline in real time, enabling the detection of zero-day attacks and other novel threats that would bypass traditional security tools.

Conclusion: It is time to upskill and cross-skill your credentials to ensure your path to long-term success.

Market Assessments:

AI - Statista: “The market size in the Artificial Intelligence market is projected to reach US $244.22bn in 2025. The market size is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2025-2031) of 26.60%, resulting in a market volume of US $1.01tn by 2031.”

Cybersecurity - Fortune Business Insights: “The global cybersecurity market size was valued at USD 193.73 billion in 2024. The market is projected to grow from USD 218.98 billion in 2025 to USD 562.77 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 14.40% during the forecast period.”

Salaries: (will vary by experience level & location)

AI - BuiltIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Levels.fyi, PayScale, ZipRecruiter

Cybersecurity - BuiltIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Levels.fyi, PayScale, ZipRecruiter

Career Opportunities:

AI - BuiltIn, Dice, Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, Simply Hired, and Zip Recruiter

Cybersecurity - Cyber Security Jobs, Dice, Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, Simply Hired, Zip Recruiter

AI Specializations, Master Classes and Certifications:

For a more comprehensive roster of AI certifications see Google Cloud, Meta, Microsoft along with Coursera, Datacamp, Digital Ocean, edX.

Cyber Specializations, Master Classes and Certifications:

Note: For a more comprehensive roster of cyber certifications see EC Council, ISC2, ISACA, Infosec Institute, GIAC, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and IBM.

Enroll today (teams & execs are welcome).

Monday, September 15, 2025

Ethical Hacking - Career Earnings Analysis (September 2025)

Colleagues, implementing a well-defined, forward-thinking career development plan can boost your career and income growth over a 30-year life cycle. According to Verified Market Reports the “Ethical Hacking Certification Market Revenue was valued at USD $1.5 Billion in 2024 and is estimated to reach USD $4.3 Billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 12.5% from 2026 to 2033.” By making modest investments in your professional training and certification will reward you with greatly enhanced income potential.

Assumptions:

Duration: 30-year career lifecycle (e.g. age 25-55)
Salary: $140,00/year - Cybersecurity Jobs (compensation will vary by location - we will use a US average for our analysis)
Education Level: This model is based upon the individual having a BS/BA degree. A MS/MA degree adds an extra 5%-10%+ to annual income
Training & Certification: 5%-10% income lift/year
Salary - Annual Increase per CPI Inflation: 2.5%/year
Base Case: Junior Level - age 25/1st certification
Intermediate Case: Senior Individual Contributor - age 30/2nd certification
Advanced Case: Mid-Upper Management - age 35/3rd certification
Expert Case: Technical Refresher - age 40-45/4th certification

Junior Level (5 years of experience):

Title(s): Junior Ethical Hacking Specialist, Security Analyst, Junior Penetration Tester, Vulnerability Analyst, Cybersecurity Intern
Base income: $162,260/year
Sample Certs: Certified in Ethical Hacking (ISC2), CompTIA PenTest+, EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH):

Intermediate (10 years of experience):

Title(s): Penetration Tester, Ethical Hacker, Incident Response Analyst, Security Consultant
Base income: $196.434/year
Sample Certs: Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), GIAC Certified Penetration Tester (GPEN)

Advanced (15 years of experience):

Title(s): Senior Penetration Tester, Cybersecurity Architect, Red Team Lead, Threat Hunter
Base income: $240,046/year
Sample Certs: Offensive Security Web Expert (OSWE), GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN), Offensive Security Exploit Developer (OSED)

Expert (Executive-Refresher) (20 years of experience):

Title(s): Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Distinguished Security Engineer, Security Research Scientist, Director of Cybersecurity
Base income: $391,953/year
Sample Certs: GIAC Security Expert (GSE), Offensive Security Certified Expert³ (OSCE³)

Income Comparison:

Base Case: Junior Level - $162,260/year
Intermediate Case: Senior Individual Contributor - $196.434/year
Advanced Case: Mid-Upper Management - $240,046/year
Expert Case: Technical Refresher - $391,953/year

Note: For a more comprehensive roster of cyber certifications see CIAT, Cisco, EC-Council, Infosec Institute, NICCS along with Coursera, edX, (Pearson), Udacity, and Udemy.

Ethical Hacking Specializations, Master Classes and Certifications:

Get started today (teams & execs are welcome).