Position Yourself as a Leader in Digital Asset Protection
- Companies spent more than $86 billion on cybersecurity in 2017
- By 2020, there will be at least 2 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs
- In 2014, there were 238,158 job postings for cybersecurity experts - 11% of all IT jobs posted
- Postings for cybersecurity jobs grew 91% between 2010 and 2014, compared to 28% growth for general IT job postings
- More than one-third of these job postings require CISM or CISSP certification
Senior security analyst. Security manager. Chief information security officer.
These are just some of the job titles you will be qualified for after you complete your Master of Science in Cybersecurity from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Large organizations that have to protect large volumes of data need a skilled leader in cybersecurity. These roles require both the technical expertise and business leadership skills to communicate the importance of data protection and ensure implementation.
When you graduate with your master’s in cybersecurity, you’ll meet the need for both technical and business expertise with a perfect balance of knowledge and skills — from intrusion detection to negotiation, from risk management to communications.
“You must be able to speak succinctly and make the complex understandable via meaningful business terms. If you can’t do that, you are not going to make it.” – Patrick Joyce, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Medtronic
Top Five Cities for Top-Paying Cybersecurity Jobs
Jobs in cybersecurity are concentrated in government and defense hubs, including Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va., but are growing quickly in other cities, including Austin, Texas and Columbus, Ohio, as well as Denver, Portland, Ore., Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Midwestern cities.
With a master’s, your cybersecurity job outlook will be especially favorable in these U.S. cities where graduates earn the highest salaries:
- Minneapolis
Home to not only Saint Mary's University of Minnesota's Twin Cities Campus, but also the headquarters of retail giants Target and Best Buy, financial services businesses U.S. Bancorp and Ameriprise Financial, and almost 20 Fortune 500 companies, including 3M, St. Jude Medical, Supervalu, and General Mills.Average salary: $131,302
- Denver
Located one hour south of the National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs, Denver is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation for cybersecurity jobs. By 2025, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment projects 40 percent job growth for Information Security Analyst positions in Denver.Average salary: $123,222
- San Francisco
Levi Strauss and North Face call San Francisco home, along with five major banks, including Wells Fargo and First Republic Bank; and hot companies like Airbnb, Lyft, Reddit, and Slack. As retail, financial and tech companies, these companies possess vast amounts of data to protect.Average salary: $148,744
- Dallas
PropertyCasualty360 reports Dallas is "known for its broad economic base including banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, and transportation and logistics companies." That translates into variety of cybersecurity job opportunities for you.Average salary: $118,841
- Seattle
Home to coffee behemoth Starbucks and tech leaders Amazon and Microsoft, along with companies that gravitate toward the city because of its reputation as a hub for technology start-ups.Average salary: $128,470
Adapted from a 2016 report by PropertyCasualty360.
Income. Industries. Employers.
According to Burning Glass, the median salary for top-tier cybersecurity positions was $110,000 at the beginning of 2018. With your Master of Science in Cybersecurity, you’ll be prepared for cybersecurity jobs and salaries like these:
| JOB TITLE | MEDIAN INCOME |
| Information security analyst | $69,000 |
| Information security specialist | $75,000 |
| Information security officer | $85,000 |
| Security engineer | $86,000 |
| Information security manager | $100,000 |
| Security architect, IT | $112,000 |
| Chief information security officer | $135,000 |
In addition, cybersecurity experts are urgently needed in a wide variety of industries to protect important assets from cyber-intruders. Leading industries include:
- Banking and Finance
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Non-Profit
- Education
- Technology
- Government
- Manufacturing
Employers as varied as Booz Allen Hamilton, AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin are all on the lookout for cybersecurity leaders.
You’ll graduate from Saint Mary’s with the right mix of technical and business expertise that you’ll need to stand out to these high-level employers in today’s job market.
Program Outcomes
With your Master of Science in Cybersecurity from Saint Mary’s, you’ll be able to:
- Demonstrate the business management skills relevant to administering information security programs in organizations
- Apply leadership skills in information security planning
- Achieve proficiency in communicating technical information
- Develop a strategic balance between business needs and overall information security architecture planning
- Evaluate risk management frameworks, methods and strategies
- Plan for cyberattacks on networks and computer systems
- Protect enterprise-wide information assets
You’ll also be prepared to sit for exams for the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) — industry certifications that are increasingly in demand by employers.