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October 20, 1997, Section: Careers

Security professionals 'secure' big bucks -- Systems, network administrators' salaries on rise

By Michele Pepe

The shortage of technologists may signal rough going for companies in search of new talent.

But for people with the know-how, it means bigger salaries and more generous raises.

A salary survey conducted this past September by The SANS Institute, Bethesda, Md., revealed the salaries of systems administrators, network administrators and security professionals increased by more than 10 percent each in the last year. The salaries of security professionals increased the most, by 14 percent.

"Networking's pretty diffuse, but security is not," said Alan Paller, director of research at SANS. "Knowing a lot about security is a real good stepladder."

Paller said security expertise includes everything from user-access controls to cryptography. "The Internet is really driving the concern over security," said Anne Byrne, co-head of Chantilly, Va.-based Professional Computer Placement Inc.

"It's very hard to find senior-level security people," said Michele Crabb, senior computer-security analyst at Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif. "There aren't that many out there. And most of the ones that exist are already gainfully employed."

According to the survey, the average pay for security professionals increased to $64,660 from $56,725 in 1996.

For systems administrators, the average salary jumped to $56,719 from $49,900; for network administrators, it rose to $54,872 from $48,800. "Only a very small number of job titles in IS get higher salaries than these three positions," said Paller. "The system architects get more, and sometimes the higher-paid database administrators, but almost no one else gets as much as these people."

Paller said the professionals surveyed came from more than 6,000 organizations, including banks, automobile manufacturers, universities and computer vendors.

Technology suppliers, including vendors, VARs and integrators, represented about 11 percent of the survey sample.

The SANS survey, which is conducted annually, found pay discrepancies based on platform expertise as well.

Paller said the survey showed that technologists who manage primarily Unix systems earned the most. Those who primarily manage Windows NT earn nearly $2,000 less than the average. And those who primarily manage Novell systems earn about $8,000 less than the average.

"It's not that one technology is more valuable or important than the others; it's the type of shop someone is in," said Paller. The people in the Unix shops tend to manage all three areas [Unix, Windows NT and Novell], whereas the guys in the Windows NT or Novell shops tend to manage only one."

Paller said bigger companies tend to use all three platforms. "These are the companies where four or five divisions went out and got Novell installed, for example," said Paller. "Then a couple more [groups] tried [Windows] NT and liked it. And over on the scientific and engineering side, they've had Unix for years. Now somebody's got to manage all of it."