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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been working in that field for over 35 years - when I started it was not called Cyber Security though. The name keeps changing…

In my experience, DC would be best positioned for that career by getting a BS Computer Science or BS Computer Engineering and taking (a) security-related courses and (b) operating systems internals and networking courses and (c) a class teaching the math behind modern cryptology.

The folks who really know computer “internals” and really have deep knowledge of networking usually will have the crucial foundational knowledge to get the more interesting (and better paid) assignments.

Many, but not all, students who get a BA or BS which is specifically in Cyber Security will have stable employment and reasonable starting salaries, but their lack of the deep foundational knowledge of how computer internals and networks work usually eventually caps out their career with a kind of glass ceiling.

A poorly understood potential pit fall is that many Cyber Security engineering jobs end up being more like highly skilled technician work.  People who do as I outline above will always have lots of interesting work and no glass ceiling to contend with.

A good local place for students interested in this field to intern, either as a HS student or as a college student, is the Naval Research Laboratory, which has a world-class researchers in information security. It has mostly a civil service staff.[/quote]

+1 to all of this.  Or if they want to major in cybersecurity make sure to take some of the more advanced CS courses (operating systems, networking, compilers are some topics that I’m glad I have a really deep foundation in) as electives or toward a minor.  The cybersecurity degree is generally a good prerequisite to a career in policy or as PP says technician work so if you want to work on the really fun stuff, you also need to pick up some serious pure computer science/engineering.[/quote]

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