Job Description

You will be helping the IT team to ensure the seamless operation of security technologies that protect the organisation from an ever evolving threat landscape. You will be supporting us to safeguard the organisations data, assets and overall cyber security posture.

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

• Support the monitoring of security systems, alerts, and potential threats
• Assist in identifying and responding to security incidents
• Help maintain and improve security controls, policies, and procedures
• Contribute to vulnerability assessments and risk analysis activities
• Support user awareness initiatives and promote cyber security best practices
• Assist with audits, compliance activities, and documentation
• Work collaboratively with IT teams to ensure secure system operations

Where you'll work

SPRINGWOOD COURT
SPRINGWOOD CLOSE
TYTHERINGTON BUSINESS PARK
MACCLESFIELD
SK10 2XF

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

QA LIMITED

Training course

Cyber security technologist (2021) (level 4)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Discover vulnerabilities in a system by using a mix of research and practical exploration.
• Analyse and evaluate security threats and hazards to a system or service or processes. Use relevant external source of threat intelligence or advice (e.g. National Cyber Security Centre) Combine different sources to create an enriched view of cyber threats and hazards.
• Research and investigate common attack techniques and relate these to normal and observed digital system behaviour and recommend how to defend against them. Interpret and demonstrate use of external source of vulnerabilities (e.g. OWASP, intelligence sharing initiatives, open source).
• Undertake security risk assessments for simple systems without direct supervision and propose basic remediation advice in the context of the employer.
• Source and analyse security cases and describe what threats, vulnerability or risks are mitigated and identify any residual areas of concern.
• Analyse employer or customer requirements to derive security objectives and taking account of the threats and overall context develop a security case which sets out the proposed security measures in the context with reasoned justification.
• Identify and follow organisational policies and standards for information and cyber security and operate according to service level agreements or other defined performance targets.
• Configure, deploy and use computer, digital network and cyber security technology.
• Recommend improvements to the cyber security posture of an employer or customer based on research into future potential cyber threats and considering threat trends.
• Write program code or scripts to meet a given design requirement in accordance with employers' coding standards.
• Identify cyber security threats relevant to a defined context.
• Accurately, objectively and concisely record and report the appropriate cyber security information, including in written reports within a structure or template provided.
• Design, build, test and troubleshoot a network incorporating more than one subnet with static and dynamic routes, to a given design requirement without supervision. Provide evidence that the system meets the design requirement.
• Analyse security requirements given (functional and non-functional security requirements that may be presented in a security case) against other design requirements (e.g. usability, cost, size, weight, power, heat, supportability etc.) for a given system or product. Identify conflicting requirements and propose, with reasoning, resolution through appropriate trade-offs.
• Design and build, systems in accordance with a security case within broad but generally well-defined parameters. This should include selection and configuration of typical security hardware and software components. Provide evidence that the system has properly implemented the security controls required by the security case.
• Design systems employing encryption to meet defined security objectives. Develop and implement a plan for managing the associated encryption keys for the given scenario or system.
• Use tools, techniques and processes to actively prevent breaches to digital system security.
• Configure digital system monitoring and analysis tools (e.g. SIEM tools), taking account of threat & vulnerability intelligence, indicators of compromise.
• Conduct cyber-risk assessments against an externally (market) recognised cyber security standard using a recognised risk assessment methodology.
• Develop information security policies or processes to address a set of identified risks, for example from security audit recommendations.
• Develop information security policies within a defined scope to take account of legislation and regulation relevant to cyber security.
• Take an active part in a security audits against recognised cyber security standards, undertake gap analysis and make recommendations for remediation.
• Develop plans for local business continuity for approval within defined governance arrangements for business continuity.
• Assess security culture using a recognised approach.
• Design and implement a simple ‘security awareness’ campaign to address a specific aspect of a security culture.
• Develop plans for incident response for approval within defined governance arrangements for incident response.
• Integrate and correlate information from various sources (including log files from different sources, digital system monitoring tools, Secure Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools, access control systems, physical security systems) and compare to known threat and vulnerability data to form a judgement based on evidence with reasoning that the anomaly represents a digital system security breach.
• Recognise anomalies in observed digital system data structures (including by inspection of network packet data structures) and digital system behaviours (including by inspection of protocol behaviours) and by inspection of log files and by investigation of alerts raised by automated tools including SIEM tools.
• Undertake root cause analysis of events and make recommendations to reduce false positives and false negatives.
• Manage local response to non-major incidents in accordance with a defined procedure.