💡 Why it matters: Cyberattacks are rising worldwide and organisations need experts who find weaknesses first. Ethical hackers work only with written permission and follow strict rules.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦1.5M – ₦4M
- Mid-career
- ₦5M – ₦14M
- Senior
- ₦14M – ₦35M
≈ ₦417k – ₦1.2M a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Closest National Careers Service profile: IT security co-ordinator. Typical starter to experienced salary. National Careers Service, 2026
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Information security analysts. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank occupation: Cybersecurity analyst. Hourly wage low and high x 2,080 hours (no national median shown). Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Test websites, apps and networks for security weaknesses, with written permission
- Use security tools and your own methods to simulate real attacks
- Record what you found and how serious it is
- Write reports and explain fixes to technical and non-technical people
- Retest to confirm problems were fixed
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Problem solving
- Networking knowledge
- Programming
- Curiosity
- Report writing
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Self-study with legal practice labs and certifications
- Entry roles in IT support or security
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Cyber security technologist apprenticeship
- Starting in IT support or a security operations centre role
🇺🇸 United States
- Starting in IT help desk or a security operations role
- Legal practice labs and bug bounty programs
🇨🇦 Canada
- College cybersecurity diploma plus certifications
- Starting in IT support or a security operations role
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Learn programming and how networks work, and practise only on legal training sites
- 2Study computer science or cybersecurity, or build skills through online labs
- 3Start in IT support, a security operations centre or a junior security role
- 4Earn recognised certifications and join legal bug bounty programmes
- 5Work as a penetration tester, then lead a team or specialise
⏰ A day in the life
You have written permission from a company to test its new app. You look for a weakness in the login page and find one that would let an outsider see private data. You document the steps, rate the risk and write clear advice for the developers to fix it.