Business intelligence jobs in Homeland Security are increasing as national security concerns over cybercrime and terrorism grow every day. Because of this, there are many business intelligence related jobs in Homeland Security as illustrated below.
The Benefits of Business Intelligence
Business intelligence works through data collection, analysis, sharing and results-driven action. Every industry benefits from actionable business intelligence. For instance, the financial industry uses it for fraud detection through detecting suspicious online activities and questionable credit card transactions. Therefore, it is an important part of risk management. Additionally, health care organizations use business intelligence to track and evaluate drug performances. Finally, the retail industry often uses it to evaluate and predict internal and external theft targets. However, there are even more important uses of business intelligence within the federal intelligence community.
Why Business Intelligence Matters to National Cybersecurity
Homeland Security has the difficult task of protecting the country’s business operations and public infrastructures from in-person and online crimes ranging from foreign hackers to violent terrorists. This involves different areas, such as transportation, telecommunications, business information systems and public gas and electric utilities. Therefore, this requires coordinated agency efforts and intelligence information gathering and sharing. Business intelligence and cyber security is the key to protecting commercial industries and companies across the country. Consequently, the Department of Homeland Security has plenty of business intelligence jobs available to achieve the ongoing challenge of digitally securing the country’s countless businesses.
The Department of Homeland Security
There are many business intelligence jobs in Homeland Security directly with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS employs different types of cybersecurity professionals who are trained in software assurance, vulnerability detection, intelligence gathering, network engineering and cyber incident response. DHS intelligence analysts will be expected to understand information systems, architecture design and security programs. In order to identify and prevent cyber attacks, they must proficiently understand security threats such as malware, spyware and ransomware. Additionally, they must be able to exploit associated vulnerabilities and conduct results-driven penetration testing. Intelligence analysts must be able to not only quickly gather and analyze complex incident data, but translate it into understandable language with succinct recommendations. Therefore, intelligence analysts must have exceptional investigative and interpretive skills.
The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center
The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) is an integral part of the Department of Homeland Security. The NCCIC is tasked with coordinating and centralizing national cybersecurity efforts. The NCCIC is divided into four branches that all employ intelligence analysts: Operations & Integration (NOI), the National Coordinating Center for Communications (NCC), the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT). NCCIC employs a variety of IT experts who act as business intelligence analysts. They must provide online protection to federal civilian agencies. They work closely with business and infrastructure owners to identify threats, prevent attacks and reduce risks. They collaborate with local, state and federal agencies to share information, respond to incidents and develop preventative measures. They regularly collect, analyze and prepare cyber threat and vulnerability information with actionable recommendations.
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It is plain to see that national security offers excellent job security to IT professionals dedicated to fighting cyber crime through actionable business intelligence.
