The Datum Report

Occupation 2135 · Professional occupations

Cyber security professionals

Half of full-time cyber security professionals in the UK earn more than £54,647 a year, and half earn less.

Cyber security professionals design, implement, test and maintain cyber security systems and track, investigate and analyse data linked to cybercrime.

How people enter it

Entrants usually possess a degree or equivalent qualification, although entry with other academic qualifications and/or significant relevant experience is possible. There is a variety of relevant vocational, professional and postgraduate qualifications available.

What the work involves

• examines IT system for potential threats to its security and integrity and draws up response plans for situations where security is compromised
• develops test plans for security systems and undertakes and documents the testing of security systems weaknesses and errors, identifies source of problems and proposes solutions
• develops quality standards and validation techniques
• makes recommendations concerning software/system quality
• deals with and reports on breaches in security
• uses specialist software to gather and analyse information and evidence relating to cybercrime and presents findings to law enforcement officials or private clients

Also called

Data security manager · Ethical hacker · Forensic computer investigator · IT security analyst · Technical security consultant

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for cyber security professionals, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 5 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

IT business analysts, architects and systems designers · IT managers · IT network professionals · IT project managers · IT quality and testing professionals · Information technology professionals n.e.c. · Programmers and software development professionals