WHAT DOES AN IT SECURITY SPECIALIST DO?
Published: Nov 11, 2025 - The Information Technology (IT) Security Specialist ensures the development, maintenance, and auditing of security policies and processes aligned with industry standards such as ISO 27001 and NIST. This role collaborates with stakeholders to manage security tools, assess risks, and oversee incident response, penetration testing, and training activities. The specialist also maintains compliance through regular reviews, vendor assessments, and client audit support to strengthen the organization’s overall security posture.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for IT Security Specialist
1. IT Security Specialist Duties
- Cyber Security Strategy: Execute on the client's Cyber Security Strategy and roadmap.
- Security Assessment: Execute the recommendations identified in the Cyber Security Assessment performed to bridge the identified security gaps.
- Threat Protection: Keep the client's information and infrastructure protected against external and internal threats, and accidental or intentional exposure, ensuring the availability of the client's operating data processing environment.
- Security Solutions: Manage security solutions, including firewall, antivirus, SIEM, and intrusion detection systems.
- Security Consulting: Act as an internal information security consultant, advising the organization on current information about information security technologies and related regulatory issues.
- Access Control: Monitor the internal control systems to ensure that appropriate access levels are maintained.
- Security Audit: Act as an internal auditor for security issues, monitoring compliance with information security policies and procedures, and referring problems to the appropriate department manager.
- Risk Reporting: Report to management on the progress of implementing security measures, evaluating the effectiveness of existing measures, results of risk analysis, and results of control activities.
- Disaster Recovery: Coordinate the development, implementation, and maintenance of an effective disaster recovery plan and procedures for business continuity.
- Firewall Management: Define, manage, and monitor the configuration and effectiveness of firewalls, IDS/IPS, SIEM, Internet access control, email filters, antivirus, and other security-related tools, ensuring permanent control and updates of program and file versions.
2. IT Security Specialist Details
- Security KPIs: Define and monitor indicators (KPIs) to control information security processes.
- Security Reporting: Prepare reports on security indicators (KPIs).
- Vulnerability Monitoring: Perform regular security monitoring and security audits to identify any possible vulnerabilities and intrusions.
- Access Management: Protect the system by defining access privileges, control structures, and resources.
- Account Review: Perform regular reviews of end-user accounts, permissions, and access rights.
- Policy Management: Responsible for the creation and update of IT Security Policies and Compliance documentation.
- Document Control: Ensure all documents are updated, reviewed, and trained on.
- Security Training: Coordinate the development and delivery of an education and training program on information security and privacy matters for employees and other authorized users.
- User Oversight: Provide training and oversight to all employees and other authorized users, ensuring proper information security clearance in accordance with established organizational information security policies and procedures.
- Security Awareness: Initiate, facilitate, and promote activities to create information security awareness within the organization and oversee the dissemination of policies, standards, and procedures to the users’ community.
- Regulation Compliance: Keep abreast of security and privacy legislation, regulations, advisories, alerts, and vulnerabilities about the client's environment.
3. IT Security Specialist Responsibilities
- Regulatory Compliance: Assure that CLIENT’S complies with external requirements and regulations, and meets current legislation regarding information access, security, and privacy.
- Risk Assessment: Conduct risks and vulnerabilities assessments, investigations on security incidents, and security audits, reporting on the assessed items.
- Incident Response: Develop and implement an Incident Response Plan to address security incidents (breaches) and coordinate the emergency and response team.
- Audit Coordination: Work with the company-designated auditing officers on compliance issues.
- Policy Enforcement: Respond to alleged policy violations or complaints from internal or external parties.
- Audit Support: Provide the information requested by internal or external audits on the items under the responsibility of the information security area.
- Incident Management: Serve as the IT contact point for information security, privacy, and copyright infringement incidents, including relationships with law enforcement entities.
- Risk Program: Develop and implement an ongoing risk assessment program targeting information security and privacy matters.
- Vulnerability Management: Recommend methods for vulnerability detection and remediation, and oversee vulnerability testing.
4. IT Security Specialist Job Summary
- Technical Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting various issues on both Mac and Windows PCs with diagnostic tools.
- User Support: Respond to email, IM, and phone from employees seeking help.
- Documentation Writing: Write procedures and training manuals.
- Platform Management: Design, optimize, and maintain critical platforms for customers to run applications on.
- Risk Compliance: Work on risk and compliance management for the internal organization and different teams.
- Regulation Monitoring: Keep the organization up to date on relevant regulations, construct the right scope, and work on optimizing the compliance/risk analyses.
- Security Engineering: Work on other (more technical) disciplines within the security domain.
- Cloud Operations: Work on a variety of tasks within cloud security, SOC operations, endpoint security, and more.
- Policy Implementation: Review, design, implement, and support information security policies and standards across the group.
- Security Leadership: Lead as an information security subject matter expert and develop the culture of security across the brands.
- Team Collaboration: Work with multi-disciplined teams.
- Stakeholder Management: Manage stakeholders and liaise effectively.
- Result Reporting: Report and act on results.
- Endpoint Protection: Perform endpoint security assessment and mitigation.
- Audit Maintenance: Maintain the IT audit environment.
5. IT Security Specialist Accountabilities
- Policy Development: Define and refine security policies as requested by internal stakeholders and the firm’s clients.
- Security Awareness: Raise awareness of security in technology and the impact of non-compliance.
- Policy Maintenance: Maintain the set of security policies aligned with best practices and existing standards in the field (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST).
- Policy Auditing: Audit (test) security policies regularly on an operational basis and develop implementation plans.
- Contract Review: Review client engagement letters for technical security and influence agreements that are favorable to the firm from an information security risk perspective.
- Audit Response: Respond to external audits as requested by the clients.
- Process Management: Implement and manage security processes.
- Security Operations: Manage processes such as security training, penetration testing, security incident response, and policy upgrades.
- Tool Management: Implement and manage security tools, such as firewalls, online security training tools, penetration testing tools, and security incident and event monitoring.
- Project Review: Review and approve projects and vendors from a security perspective.