Salary Survey Extra is a series of dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our annual Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Hackers and other digital malefactors want everybody’s data. And in 2018, much of what both businesses and individual users might consider to be “their” data isn’t even stored in a location that they can directly protect — it’s off somewhere in “the Cloud,” meaning on a server in a giant data warehouse somewhere. Protection of that physical location is in someone else’s hands.

Secure data storage is perhaps the most obvious application of cloud security technology, but it’s far from the only one. There’s a lot to know, and an increasingly popular means of certifying that knowledge is the still-new Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) — No. 8 on this year’s Salary Survey 75 list — credential launched in 2015 by (ISC)² and Cloud Security Alliance.

Here’s what the salary picture looks like for CCSP holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $138,610
Median Annual Salary: $131,000
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 4.1 percent
Very Satisfied: 22.2 percent
Satisfied: 40.7 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 29.6 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 3.3 percent

All Non-U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $92,220
Median Annual Salary: $92,500
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 11 percent
Very Satisfied: 22.2 percent
Satisfied: 34.4 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 32.2 percent
Not At All Satisfied: [No responses]

The largest single body of CCSP holders in the survey is made up of U.S. residents (76.9 percent of those surveyed). (ISC)² is active in countries around the globe, but the rest of our CCSP holders chimed in from just six other countries: Canada, China, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Most CCSP holders who responded to the survey are men, but we did hear from a notable segment who are women (12.8 percent of respondents). Most of those who responded to the survey are comfortable middle-aged or older, with 30.7 percent of respondents between the ages of 35 and 44, 35.9 percent between the ages of 45 and 54, and 23.1 percent between the ages of 55 and 64. The rest, 10.3 percent of those surveyed, are the comparatively young pups between the ages of 25 and 34.

In terms of education, most of the CCSP holders who participated in the survey are college-educated, with the highest level of education attained being either a bachelor’s degree (25.6 percent of those surveyed), master’s degree (35.9 percent), associate’s (two-year) degree (7.7 percent), or professional degree such as a juris doctor (4.9 percent). The outliers are the 20.5 percent of respondents who completed some level of technical training after high school, and the 5.4 percent who are currently ascending the educational ladder.

We didn’t hear from any CCSP holders who are unemployed, though nearly 8 percent currently have only part-time jobs. The rest, a bit more than 92 percent of all respondents, are employed full-time. The work schedule for most is tilted toward overtime hours, with 55.6 percent of those surveyed on the clock for between 41 and 50 hours each week, while a further 13.9 percent put in more than 50 hours per week. The rest either have a standard 40-hour work week (22.2 percent of respondents), or work between 31 and 39 hours per week (8.3 percent).

When it comes to where CCSP holders are located on the standard company org chart, the largest single group (40 percent) are at the senior specialist level, with additional small contingents who rate as either specialists (2.8 percent) or rank-and-file employees (7.5 percent). Everyone else is somewhere in management, slotted in either as a manager (10 percent of respondents), senior manager (20 percent), director (17.5 percent) or executive (2.2 percent)

Almost all of the CCSP holders we heard from are seasoned cybersecurity professionals, with 75 percent of respondents having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for more than a decade. The rest have measured up to that standard for between 9 and 10 years (7.5 percent of those surveyed), between 6 and 8 years (5 percent), between 3 and 5 years (10 percent), or between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (2.5 percent).

Finally, here’s the view of CCSP holders on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:

At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification:
Several times a day: 55 percent
Several times a week: 32.5 percent
Several times a month: 7.5 percent
Occasionally: 3 percent
Rarely: 2 percent

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 37.5 percent
Agree: 50 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 10 percent
Disagree: 2.5 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 25 percent
Agree: 50 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 22.5 percent
Disagree: 2.5 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 25 percent
Agree: 52.5 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 20 percent
Disagree: 2.5 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]