Networking vs Cybersecurity

Hello everyone, I am currently a high school senior and will be entering college at the University of Cincinnati next year for their Bachelor's of IT program. They offer 3 tracks, software development, cybersecurity, and networking. I have no interest in software development, and I like the other two equally.
This is mostly because I don't know what cybersecurity jobs entail really. I imagine the guy in the movies furiously typing commands into a terminal with green text as a bomb explodes in the background...but I am guessing it's not so glamorous.

But really, I always thought that cybersecurity was more of a senior thing, that is, you must know networking before security...how can a person secure something that they know relatively nothing about?

I know I enjoy networking as I have done a bit of that and I like system administration, virtualization, etc etc etc.
There seems to be so much overlap between networking and cybersecurity as well, and I'm not sure how to differentiate.
Can people involved in security tell me a bit about their day to day tasks? Any advice as to what track I should take?

Thank you!

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Comments

AverageJoe

Congrats on your upcoming college career!

The first advice I'd offer is to look at the individual classes required for each track. My guess is that several classes will be part of both tracks, so focus on the classes that are unique to each program and read their descriptions. Then you'll be better positioned to know which track interests you more.

Also know that it's not a one-and-done decision. You can change your mind later and change tracks (but look into school policies to know what the conditions are for changing). My bet is that the first year looks pretty much the same for either track, which means you can probably change tracks pretty easily during that first year. Then, as you take more specialized classes, changing tracks might have more impact, such as requiring you to go an extra semester to fit in classes you need.

Even once you finish your degree, that doesn't mean you're locked into a particular career area. My degree focused on software development (which I loved!), but I've had jobs in that area as well as network and cybersecurity jobs. Your degree is a starting point that shows employees you have a certain amount of knowledge in the field and (sometimes more importantly) that you can learn.

Just my 2 cents.

clintonia

ProFamous wrote: »

This is mostly because I don't know what cybersecurity jobs entail really. I imagine the guy in the movies furiously typing commands into a terminal with green text as a bomb explodes in the background...but I am guessing it's not so glamorous.

But really, I always thought that cybersecurity was more of a senior thing, that is, you must know networking before security...how can a person secure something that they know relatively nothing about?

Well cybersecurity has a lot of different subsections. Just to name a few, you can be a penetration tester that tries to circumvent protections in a network in order to offer better network security solutions, you can be an incident handler/responder, where if a security incident (ex. company gets hacked) you are the one that performs the discovery process behind the compromise, or you can be a SOC analyst, where you monitor a company's network for intrusion attempts, etc. I'm leaving a few roles out but these are just a few that come to mind. Cybersecurity work definitely not how it is in the movies where you type a few commands and then say "I'm in" and then blow up a nuclear reactor but depending on the area you focus in, it could be just as interesting and fun.

In regards to cybersecurity being a senior thing, it tends to be more of a senior thing, mostly because you have to have knowledge of the underlying "product" that you are securing. So for example, you should have a good understanding of networks so that you know how its flawed and can be exploited before you can start learning to apply effective network security techniques. However with that said, just because cybersecurity can be more upper level, doesn't mean that you can't learn about it in tandem with networking.

SoCalGuy858

To add to clintonia's comment about cyber security being many different things:

I'm in the security field, and my role is probably 80/20 between administrative/technical. On the "administrative" side, I'm referring to what most would call "GRC" or governance, risk, and compliance. I'm a security analyst in title, but the majority of my job entails policy / process development, far from ~90% or more job requisitions I see for the same title which involve working in a SOC. I'm in a very unique position building out a previously non-existent security presence at my company, so my situation is certainly NOT the norm (especially for someone at my stage of the game), but I hope this helps feed into the idea that "cybersecurity" is too broad of a term, much like saying "I want to get into IT".

NetworkNewb

I would recommend to look into what classes each of the 3 tracks consist of. I've seen other major universities Cybersecurity program focus alot more on the compliance/managerial side of security rather than the technical side. (though compliance is a big part of security) Maybe that is something that interest you and you want to do. Or maybe it isn't.

Definitely take a look at the classes though and look into their descriptions to find exactly what they are covering. I'd bet that will help you a lot on which track you decide to choose. Then just take the track that has most classes that interest you.

edit: I wrote this before reading AverageJoe's response and it looks like I'm just reiterating his first paragraph... ah well

jcundiff

Building on what others have said, Cyber Security is a very very broad job range, look at the CISSP exam for example, there are 8 ( and used to be 10) different domains... Some of the sub fields within Cyber (Info) Security include

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (did this)
InfoSec Operations ( techinal hands on... firewalls, proxies, etc)
Identity and Access Management
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (did this)
Threat Intelligence (currently do this)

I can tell you 1st hand that the demand for Cyber Security in the Cincinnati area (work in Cincy area)is greater than the IT side of the house. And there are lots of entry level security gigs for someone like you coming out of college with a BS.

Also, Information Security is booming right now with a nation wide shortage of trained professionals forecast into the next decade. If you want the FBI and other government agencies are hiring big as well but tend to pay less than private

ProFamous

Thanks everyone for the excellent responses!
I am actually taking a InfoSec class right now that seems to be along the lines of the CISSP exam...and I honestly find it incredibly boring. Compliance and blah blah...
But the reason that I am not ditching InfoSec now is because the CISSP seems to be very broad, and differs from exams such as the CEH where it is more practical...not sure.

Here is the list of classes for the cybersecurity specialization:

Network Infrastructure Management

Network Security

Computer and Network Forensics

Network Monitoring and Intrusion Prevention Systems

Penetration Testing

As opposed to Networking:

Network Infrastructure Management

Enterprise Systems Administration

Cloud Computing

Network Security

Scripting Languages

Judging from just the class names in cybersecurity, it seems like a more of a technical, hands-on track. I think I will enjoy this more than the high level policy/compliance type work that the CISSP addresses...thoughts?

@jcundiff, and really? That is so great to hear about infosec in the cincy area.

dmoore44

It all really depends on what kind of stuff you like to do...

Networking could entail a lot of router configs (configuring routes for WAN access for BGP, MPLS, or OSPF), switch configs (802.1x auth, turn on/off ports, VLAN configs), load balancers (many shops consider these security devices, but they're not...), proxies (most shops consider these security devices, and they are, but usually something the security guys like to hand off to the network guys), firewalls (again, these are security devices that are sometimes managed by the network guys). There's lots to do in networking, especially with the advent of SDN and introduction of fully virtualized data centers. It's certainly not a stagnant field, if that's something you're concerned about.

As many have mentioned above, security is extremely dynamic, and has lots of niches to capture any interest you may have.

- Governance/Risk/Compliance focuses on security policy, risk management, and security auditing (i.e. SOX, PCI, HIPAA, etc...). GRC isn't overly technical from a hands on perspective, but you do need to understand the technical aspects of the standards and policies you'd be working with.

- IR is all about detecting the fact that you've been pwnd and recovering from it. There are two broad thoughts in IR - pursue (the bad guy) or protect (from more damage). A pursuit policy/posture usually brings in the DFIR guys to do their forensicating to determine how the infection happened. Protect usually means that you're going to wipe and restore the machine to the last known good configuration and get on with business. Malware reverse analysts/engineers usually work in a somewhat parallel role to the DFIR guys. That is to say, the malware guys take samples that the forensics guys pull from infected machines. RE's also go grab their own samples by setting up honeypots, honeynets, or by participating in some of the sharing initiatives.

- SecOps is generally filled with guys who love to configure security devices and implement rules on detecting devices. Firewall rules, IDS rules, proxy rules, SIEM rules, etc... all come out of SecOps. It can be boring if all you're working with is firewalls... or it can be pretty entertaining if you're working in a mature security organization. Sometimes, security analytics guys get pegged in to SecOps roles... but they're usually more high functioning because they're really data scientists that are sifting through massive amounts of data, looking for that needle in the haystack.

There are many, many more roles in security. Check out the SANS website and browse through their list of certs - that should give you an idea on what sorts of roles are available in the security industry.

AverageJoe

Only 3 classes are different between the tracks? Shoot, if you can do both tracks just by adding 3 classes then do that. Then you've got the best of both worlds.