Cyberthreats keep evolving at an unprecedented rate, affecting critical digital infrastructure across industries. Worst of all? No one’s safe. Not healthcare providers, not financial institutions, and not even government agencies. That’s why it shouldn’t be surprising that the demand for cybersecurity professionals is also unprecedented, with over 347,000 positions waiting to be filled throughout Europe.
Naturally, such high demand comes with competitive salaries for highly trained and educated individuals. So, if you’re pursuing a master’s degree in cyber security, salary expectations are undoubtedly promising, often reaching six figures.
In other words, investing in a master’s degree in cyber security is investing in a financially secure future.
But just how secure will this future be? Keep reading to learn what the master’s in cybersecurity salary expectations are.
How Much Can I Make With a Master’s in Cybersecurity?
Given how desperately companies need qualified cybersecurity professionals, they do their best to make their offers as attractive as possible. That’s why the average salary for a master’s degree in cyber security is roughly €73,000 a year.
In the U.S., the situation is even better, with the average salary as high as $132,962 (around €123,000) a year. This is great news, as virtually all cybersecurity job positions can be done fully remotely.
As for a salary range, top earners make over €100,000 a year in countries like Luxembourg, Belgium, and Switzerland. Entry-level positions typically start at €30,000. This discrepancy clearly shows that years of experience play a significant role in determining the cybersecurity master’s salary. But this factor is far from the only one.
The location of the job, the specific industry (private or public sector), and the level of responsibility also heavily influence compensation in the cybersecurity field.
With these elements, the math is simple. Countries with higher demand for cybersecurity professionals (e.g., Germany) will generally offer higher salaries. The same goes for industries, such as finance and technology, which pay better than government jobs. But what about the level of responsibility? How does your cybersecurity role affect your salary?
The good news is that those who hold a master’s degree can earn a six-figure salary even if they aren’t in a leadership position. Let’s break down the average master’s in cyber security salary expectations for the most common roles in cybersecurity.
- Information security analyst: €100,000
- Cybersecurity manager: €105,000
- Cybersecurity engineer: €125,000
- Incident response manager: €125,000
- Penetration and vulnerability tester: €125,000
- Cybersecurity consultant: €140,000
Can I Make 200k a Year in Cybersecurity?
If you’re looking for a yes or no answer, it’s yes, you can make €200,000 a year in cybersecurity. But since this figure is missing from the median salaries shown in the previous section, you can probably conclude that a €200,000 yearly salary isn’t the norm for every cybersecurity professional.
So, what does it take to earn this impressive figure?
The “easiest” way to such a high cybersecurity master’s degree salary is through a leadership position. For instance, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are all but guaranteed a salary over €200,000, even when working in mid-sized companies. The same goes for the lead software security engineer.
Another factor that can contribute to such a lucrative pay is location. Working for a U.S. company in a high-demand area is more likely to get you your desired salary. For instance, for New York City and Los Angeles master’s in cyber security jobs, salary often reaches €200,000 due to a high demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals.
Finally, specialized roles that call for niche expertise, such as application security engineer, can also command a €200,000 salary.
As you can see, all the highest-paid positions require a Master of Science in cybersecurity. Salary expectations for a Bachelor of Science and other lower-level certifications in cybersecurity usually fail to hit the €200,000 mark.
Can You Make 500k a Year in Cybersecurity?
Again, the short answer is yes, you can make €500,000 a year in cybersecurity. But keep in mind that this salary is reserved only for exceptional scenarios and individuals, such as the following:
- Cybersecurity professionals in extremely niche expertise areas (e.g., disaster recovery and application security)
- Leadership roles within large multinationals or Fortune 500 corporations
- Cybersecurity consultants for high-end clients
- Entrepreneurs working on cybersecurity solutions and products
The Investment in Education vs. Return on Salary
There’s no doubt about it – cybersecurity is a highly lucrative field. But to earn the highest possible salary in the field, you’ll need one of the highest degrees of education – a master’s degree. Of course, this degree won’t be affordable if you want it to come from a highly reputable institution. So, is a master’s degree in cybersecurity even worth it?
The answer is a resounding yes!
Let’s do the math.
The simplest 10-year return-on-investment (ROI) calculation looks like this:
(expected annual salary post-master’s x 10) – (annual salary pre-master’s x 10) – (the total tuition for the master’s degree)
Let’s say you’re pre-master’s annual salary is €30,000 and your goal post-degree is a €75,000 salary. For tuition, we’ll use €6,750, which is the cost of the highly coveted Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity at the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT.)
After crunching the numbers, you’ll see that the ROI from a cybersecurity master’s from OPIT is over €440,000.
That’s not to mention all the possibilities for advancement within the field and the possibility of working for U.S. companies, which are known to pay significantly more than most European companies.
OPIT’s Master’s Degree (MSc) in Enterprise Cybersecurity: Positioning for High Salaries
The potential ROI from an OPIT master’s degree is a reason enough to pursue a Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity. Still, let’s explore how this reputable institution positions its students for such high salaries.
At OPIT, you won’t just work on your technical skills. You’ll also acquire a lot of valuable managerial expertise that allows you to pursue a variety of high-paying roles within the cybersecurity landscape. After all, you can’t get to the CISO position without mastering the intersection of technology and management.
On top of this perfect blend of knowledge, OPIT gives you a chance to gain real-world project experience while studying. This means that you’ll be ready to take on virtually any role in cybersecurity from day one. No extensive training needed!
Here are just some of the roles an OPIT master’s degree can prepare you for:
- CISO
- Cybersecurity director
- Security solutions architect
- Cybersecurity risk analyst
- Incident response manager
- Cybersecurity compliance officer
Aim for Long-Term Success
With a master’s degree in cyber security, salary expectations rise beyond the industry average, which is already more than competitive. Of course, this degree should come from a prestigious institution like OPIT. Why? This is the only way to achieve top-tier salary benchmarks wherever you end up working.
So, if you’re looking for a long-term career that offers financial stability and growth, don’t think twice about applying for OPIT.
Related posts
The Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) is the perfect place for those looking to master the core skills and gain the fundamental knowledge they need to enter the exciting and dynamic environment of the tech industry. While OPIT’s various degrees and courses unlock the doors to numerous careers, students may not know exactly which line of work they wish to enter, or how, exactly, to take the next steps.
That’s why, as well as providing exceptional online education in fields like Responsible AI, Computer Science, and Digital Business, OPIT also offers an array of career-related services, like the Peer Career Mentoring Program. Designed to provide the expert advice and support students need, this program helps students and alumni gain inspiration and insight to map out their future careers.
Introducing the OPIT Peer Career Mentoring Program
As the name implies, OPIT’s Peer Career Mentoring Program is about connecting students and alumni with experienced peers to provide insights, guidance, and mentorship and support their next steps on both a personal and professional level.
It provides a highly supportive and empowering space in which current and former learners can receive career-related advice and guidance, harnessing the rich and varied experiences of the OPIT community to accelerate growth and development.
Meet the Mentors
Plenty of experienced, expert mentors have already signed up to play their part in the Peer Career Mentoring Program at OPIT. They include managers, analysts, researchers, and more, all ready and eager to share the benefits of their experience and their unique perspectives on the tech industry, careers in tech, and the educational experience at OPIT.
Examples include:
- Marco Lorenzi: Having graduated from the MSc in Applied Data Science and AI program at OPIT, Marco has since progressed to a role as a Prompt Engineer at RWS Group and is passionate about supporting younger learners as they take their first steps into the workforce or seek career evolution.
- Antonio Amendolagine: Antonio graduated from the OPIT MSc in Applied Data Science and AI and currently works as a Product Marketing and CRM Manager with MER MEC SpA, focusing on international B2B businesses. Like other mentors in the program, he enjoys helping students feel more confident about achieving their future aims.
- Asya Mantovani: Asya took the MSc in Responsible AI program at OPIT before taking the next steps in her career as a Software Engineer with Accenture, one of the largest IT companies in the world, and a trusted partner of the institute. With a firm belief in knowledge-sharing and mutual support, she’s eager to help students progress and succeed.
The Value of the Peer Mentoring Program
The OPIT Peer Career Mentoring Program is an invaluable source of support, inspiration, motivation, and guidance for the many students and graduates of OPIT who feel the need for a helping hand or guiding light to help them find the way or make the right decisions moving forward. It’s a program built around the sharing of wisdom, skills, and insights, designed to empower all who take part.
Every student is different. Some have very clear, fixed, and firm objectives in mind for their futures. Others may have a slightly more vague outline of where they want to go and what they want to do. Others live more in the moment, focusing purely on the here and now, but not thinking too far ahead. All of these different types of people may need guidance and support from time to time, and peer mentoring provides that.
This program is also just one of many ways in which OPIT bridges the gaps between learners around the world, creating a whole community of students and educators, linked together by their shared passions for technology and development. So, even though you may study remotely at OPIT, you never need to feel alone or isolated from your peers.
Additional Career Services Offered by OPIT
The Peer Career Mentoring Program is just one part of the larger array of career services that students enjoy at the Open Institute of Technology.
- Career Coaching and Support: Students can schedule one-to-one sessions with the institute’s experts to receive insightful feedback, flexibly customized to their exact needs and situation. They can request resume audits, hone their interview skills, and develop action plans for the future, all with the help of experienced, expert coaches.
- Resource Hub: Maybe you need help differentiating between various career paths, or seeing where your degree might take you. Or you need a bit of assistance in handling the challenges of the job-hunting process. Either way, the OPIT Resource Hub contains the in-depth guides you need to get ahead and gain practical skills to confidently move forward.
- Career Events: Regularly, OPIT hosts online career event sessions with industry experts and leaders as guest speakers about the topics that most interest today’s tech students and graduates. You can join workshops to sharpen your skills and become a better prospect in the job market, or just listen to the lessons and insights of the pros.
- Internship Opportunities: There are few better ways to begin your professional journey than an internship at a top-tier company. OPIT unlocks the doors to numerous internship roles with trusted institute partners, as well as additional professional and project opportunities where you can get hands-on work experience at a high level.
In addition to the above, OPIT also teams up with an array of leading organizations around the world, including some of the biggest names, including AWS, Accenture, and Hype. Through this network of trust, OPIT facilitates students’ steps into the world of work.
Start Your Study Journey Today
As well as the Peer Career Mentoring Program, OPIT provides numerous other exciting advantages for those who enroll, including progressive assessments, round-the-clock support, affordable rates, and a team of international professors from top universities with real-world experience in technology. In short, it’s the perfect place to push forward and get the knowledge you need to succeed.
So, if you’re eager to become a tech leader of tomorrow, learn more about OPIT today.
The world has entered the age of artificial intelligence (AI), and this exciting new technology is already changing the face of society in an ever-growing number of ways. It’s influencing a plethora of industries and sectors, from healthcare and education to finance and urban planning. This guide explores AI’s impact on three of the core pillars of life: business, education, and sustainability.
AI in Business: Unlocking Unprecedented Opportunities
In the world of business, the number of uses of AI is growing by the day. Whether it’s in sales, marketing, customer relations, operational optimization, cybersecurity, data management, or some other aspect of organizational life, there are so many ways this technology can unlock new opportunities or expedite existing processes.
Take data as an example. Many businesses now collect and use large amounts of data to inform their decisions in areas like product development or marketing strategy. But they have, up to now, been limited in how they can structure, visualize, and analyze their data. AI changes all that, as it can dig into vast databases with ease, extracting insights to drive actionable decisions in no time.
AI also bridges gaps in communications. It has the power to speak in most major languages, translating audio or written text with astonishing accuracy in an instant. In a globalized world, where many businesses buy and sell with partners, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders from other nations, AI can help them communicate and exchange information more easily and reliably.
AI in Education: Democratizing and Accelerating the Learning Process
In the educational sector, AI is solving problems that have plagued this industry for generations and transforming the ways in which students learn and teachers teach. It can be used, for example, to personalize a student’s learning plan or adapt content to align with each learner’s favored learning style, making it easier for them to soak up and retain information and skills.
AI’s generative capabilities are also proving useful in the education sector. Teachers, for example, can turn to generative AI models to create lesson plans or supplementary content to support their courses, such as tables, charts, infographics, and images. This all helps to make the learning experience more diverse, dynamic, and engaging for every kind of learner.
On a broader level, there’s clear potential for AI to democratize education across the globe, making learning more accessible to all. That includes those in developing nations who may normally lack opportunities to gain knowledge and skills to achieve their ambitions. If harnessed correctly and responsibly, this technology could elevate education to whole new heights.
AI in Sustainability: Smarter Cities and Next-Level Efficiency
Sustainability is one of the sticking points when talking about AI, as many critics of the technology point to the fact that it involves huge amounts of energy and relies heavily on large and costly data centers to operate. At the same time, AI could also solve many of the sustainability crises facing the world today, uncovering solutions and innovations that may have previously taken decades to develop.
It’s already proving its value in this domain. For instance, DeepMind developed an AI system that was actually able to optimize data center energy efficiency, cutting the amount of energy used to cool data center hardware by a whopping 40% and improving energy efficiency in certain centers by 15%. That’s just one example, and it’s only the start of what AI could do from an environmental perspective.
This tech is also making cities smarter, more efficient, and more pleasant in which to live through AI-powered navigation aids or traffic redistribution systems. It also holds potential for future urban planning, city development, and infrastructure construction, provided the correct systems and frameworks can be established to make the best use of AI’s advantages.
The Ethical Challenges and Risks of AI
Despite its almost countless advantages and possible applications, AI is not without its flaws. This technology brings challenges and risks to go along with its opportunities, and five leading examples include:
- Bias: Algorithmic bias is an issue that has already presented itself during the relatively brief existence of AI so far. Some systems, for example, have issued responses or generated content that could be classified as discriminatory or prejudiced, due to the training data they were given.
- Privacy: There are fears among populations and analysts about the amount of data being fed into AI systems and how such data could be misused, potentially violating people’s rights of privacy and falling foul of data privacy regulations, such as GDPR.
- Misuse: Like so many game-changing technologies, AI has the potential to be used for both benevolent and malicious purposes. It may be used to spread misinformation and “fake news,” influence public opinion, or even in cyber-attacks, for instance.
- Over-reliance: AI is so powerful, with the capacity to carry out tasks with remarkable precision and speed, that it will be tempting for organizations to integrate it into many of their workflows and decision-making processes. But AI cannot be treated as a substitute for human judgment.
- Sustainability: There are also fears about the energy costs associated with AI and the data centers needed to power it, plus the fact that some elements of the burgeoning AI industry may exploit workers in poorer nations worldwide.
Solving These Challenges: Regulation and Responsible Use of AI
With the right approach, it is possible to solve all the above challenges, and more, making AI the most valuable and beneficial new technology the world has seen since the advent of the internet. This will require a two-pronged strategy focusing on both regulation and responsible usage.
Europe is already leading the way in the first aspect. It has introduced the AI Act – a world-first regulatory framework related to artificial intelligence, laying out how it should be used to drive innovation without infringing on the fundamental rights of workers and the larger public.
Educational institutions like the OPIT – Open Institute of Technology are also leading the way in the second aspect, educating people around the world on how to work with AI in a responsible, ethical way, through programs like the MSc in Responsible Artificial Intelligence.
By establishing rules and regulations about AI’s usage and educating the tech leaders of tomorrow in how to work with AI in a fair and responsible way, the future is bright for this exciting and extraordinary new technology.
Have questions?
Visit our FAQ page or get in touch with us!
Write us at +39 335 576 0263
Get in touch at hello@opit.com
Talk to one of our Study Advisors
We are international
We can speak in: