What does a Cybersecurity Consultant do?

Have you ever wondered what a Cybersecurity Consultant actually does and what a typical workday involves? Our colleague Daniel is a Cybersecurity Consultant and he agreed to write this blog post to provide you with an insight into his day-to-day work and introduce you to his ordinary work schedule as a Cybersecurity Consultant.

THE TYPICAL DAILY WORK OF A CYBER SECURITY CONSULTANT

Before I begin my work from the home office, I do a quick check of the equipment and devices I use regularly. My job requires everything to work without interruption otherwise I cannot concentrate fully on my work. This includes logging my working hours and ensuring that I update them on a daily basis as well as ensuring that my work schedule for the week is complete. This way, I can ensure that I perform my job effectively and in a target-oriented manner.

I also take a few minutes each day to check my inbox for emails. It is important that I don't miss any new projects or news from my colleagues at Alter Solutions Germany.

In addition to checking my emails I also utilise the weekly scheduling and time-management tool as I find that it is an important resource when planning and coordinating projects with others or ensuring harmonisation with internal processes. The tool helps me to set and meet deadlines and ensure that everyone is kept up to date on key issues.

I check for recent and breaking news items on IT security feeds on a regular basis and review the current threat situation according to BSI. This provides me with a comprehensive overview of the latest threats and dangers. This research means that I can adapt to recent developments and adjust my security measures accordingly.

I meet with my colleagues from IT Security and Security Operations at 07:30. We discuss important incidents from the night before and plan our next steps based on the collective information. This daily routine is important to my work as I need to ensure that we are all on the same page and that we are making progress collectively as a team.

Daily dispatch takes place during daily operations between 07:30 and 09:00. We then proceed to distribute orders and work instructions as well as discuss the management of external service providers.

Next, I head off to the Jour Fix. The Jour Fix is a weekly meeting that facilitates internal communication. We meet twice a week at 09.00 and discuss current issues. This is a beneficial way to keep up-to-date and exchange ideas with others.

As part of our ongoing security monitoring, we monitor potential threats using a security alert system and respond accordingly as soon as a security incident or threat occurs. Each incident is recorded into our ITSM system and documented on the radar (RIC). This allows us to determine the causes in more detail and take appropriate measures based on the log analyses provided by Elastic Search. (9:00-12:00).

I take a break from work from 13:00 – 14:00.

After this break, I continue my project-related work. My duties include: Correspondence- and support services to day-to-day operations, provision of advice relating to anti-spam- and anti-malware measures, as well as complete analysis, support and reporting for the email gateways. In addition to the above, I also perform in-depth analysis of spam- and phishing security incidents and identify new threat characteristics to improve our filter systems and parameters.

If there are no meetings scheduled, I lead training for new employees in Security Incident management.

Next I carry out rebounding for all security cases and start preparing short summaries for the following day. During this process, I create performance records for project consultation. Now I am ready for the final part of my workday.

Mostly my days end with meetings with in-house employees, customers, service providers and supervisors to discuss and recommend new technologies.

Although it is rare, I am sometimes required to travel for work, which requires a certain amount of planning as I have a degree of flexibility on how I plan my days. As well as occasional travel, my working hours are flexible, as both the project partners I work with and Alter Solutions make this possible should I need to alter my working week.

In between the day-to-day duties outlined, I attend in-house Alter Solutions' meetings to enhance transparency and information exchanges within the company as well as weekly jour fixe meetings for the specific departments concerned.