Salam Alaikum,
I work for a cyber-security company that builds technology and provide cyber threat protection services across all industries , majority of our clients are banks - conventional & non-conventional. We identify cyber threats for our clients, analyze them, monitor the cyber space and mitigate the risks for them.We have nothing to do with the operations of how the bank is running. Is my Job or income halal?
Wasalam
May Allah bless you.
I think we could divide security services to:
Protecting haram activities e.g. ensuring that a porn website operates safely. This is not permissible
Protecting the interest of an oppressor or of an enemy of Islam. This is not permissible.
Protecting the interest of a business involved in a mixture of both: halal and haram like a supermarket. This is tolerable.
Protecting halal activities, or the interest of people involved in halal activities. This is permissible.
In your case, where you work for a company who may be offering their services to various industries, you may come across to some, or all of the above at some point.
If the majority of your clients fall under category 3 and 4, then your job is tolerable. Your income is halal.
However, I would suggest you to always look for an opportunity to work for a company involved in halal.
And Allah knows best!
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.
As for the points 1 & 2 - we don’t deal with any or have any of such customers. Majority of our customers are the banks from the Middle East & GCC region. We monitor their online presence for any fake website, fake social media page, fake account impersonating the executives or any type of cyber fraud that may target the bank and its customers. For eg: Scammers that make fake website to direct bank’s customers to enter their credentials on it. We are also building technologies that detect such types of fraud on the internet. We don’t have any control in the operations or how our clients (banks and others) are operating their business.
It has been good amount of years now that am into cyber-security and banks are the easy targets for cyber-criminals because it is easy for them to scam their customers and steal their money.
As this current job is my bread and butter and also in today’s times it is difficult to find a new opportunity so just wanted an opinion about the job role i am into.
Yes I would consider banks to be under category 3. Hence, your job would be tolerable.
Why do I say tolerable?
First of all, banks are involved in both: halal and haram activities. Hence, by protecting the business, some scholars may deduct that you are indirectly assisting in sin.
Although, this does not mean that your income is haram. Your income is halal. However, as I mentioned earlier in other posts, a Muslim should always aim to have a career in a place free of any sort of haram activities.
Secondly, the security sector can be very unpredictable in the sense that, very quickly the security company could end up with different type of customers. As an employee, you have no choice over who to protect and not. Hence, to remove the hardship, I would say that it is tolerable to do such job.
A couple of points that need to be mentioned for others:
And Allah know best!