A business consultant is an expert in a particular field who works as an advisor either to a company or to another individual. Every year companies spent huge money on consultation as they understand the value that consultants bring. What separates a good consultant is a passion and drive for excellence. A good business consultant should be knowledgeable about the subject he or she is consulting on. That does make a difference.
How to begin as a consultant?
All you need to discover is what your area of interest is. For example, are you very much comfortable working around with computers? Are you updated with hard and software or internet security information, which seems to be changing daily? Are you able to take that knowledge you have gained and turn into a resource that someone be willing to pay money for? Then you have no trouble in working as Internet Security Consultant.
The Internet Security Consultant must play the role of both the attacker and the defender as they are required to find and potentially exploit vulnerabilities, but have to figure out the best way to eliminate the vulnerability.
Why become a security consultant?
Some enjoy the challenge of thinking outside the box to find application flaws in the deepest layers of the code. Others enjoy the freedom to research topics that interest them and present their findings at conferences all around the world. Some people simply like to find flaws in commonly used software, while others appreciate the opportunity to learn from a myriad of deployments and architectures.
Considering becoming an Internet Security Consultant you may need special certification before you can begin operating as a consultant. Before any clients hire you, make sure you have the qualifications necessary to get the job done. You have to make sure you are up to date in the knowledge department with all the trends and changes in the computer industry.
To become a consultant your goal should match up with the time and energy to open and successfully build a consulting business. Business consultants are required to get themselves ‘certified’ if they wish to earn their living in lieu of the consulting services they are going to provide. Certification is tricky terrain and the road to certification depends on the geographical area your business is situated in with respect to the laws of the land of the country, state, county, industry etc.
Further skillset required include –
- Familiarity with various operating systems such as Windows, Linus, UNIX and other systems available to the public.
- Measuring the vulnerability rating of cyber programs and software
- Firewall safety and management, including backups and fail safe features.
- Knowledge of threat management.
- Encryption techniques and capabilities.
- Knowledge of programming languages used for the storage and processing of raw data.
- Principles of ethical hacking and coding practices.
- Working knowledge of threat modelling and configuration.
If you have a passion for IT and digital and want to add value to your clients’ businesses then opting for internet security consultant business would be a good way to get ahead.