Information Security, Networking and Math

Spike12

Hi everyone,

I've been monitoring the forums for quite a while and I have yet to decide which path to take. I feel that my "fear" of math is putting a roadblock in what I'd like to do. I'm currently studying for the A+ exam and plan on continuing with the Network+ and Security+ afterwards.

I'm interested in Information Systems Security and/or Digital Investigations and I was wondering whether you could tell what level of math would be required for such positions. I'm definitely willing to learn, however, I know I have a limit to how much in-depth math I can really do.

I looked at a couple of curriculum (such as Champlain's Computer Forensics and Digital Investigation degree) and it appears that college algebra and statistics are the two core math courses.

Would you say this is representative of the actual knowledge required to be comfortable in those career fields?

My other concern would be the depth of knowledge required in networking. I enjoy computers, but I'm not sure I share this enthusiasm for the networking portion. Perhaps it is because it's a new field and appears overwhelming at this stage, I'm not sure.

I guess I'm trying to find a path that combines my skills and interests (digital forensics, security, solving problems - though not math related ).

Thank you in advance for your help.

docrice

In practice, I haven't had much of a need to do "math" in the general academic sense while on the job doing network security. If you're leaning into an area where you're dealing with breaking / making crypto, then sure you'll need quite a bit, but that's a pretty rare exception. That said, if you're going to be testifying in court perhaps it's useful when explaining / demonstrating competency on how crypto works (don't know if that's really the case, but I thought I'd throw that out there).

I think it'd be much more relevant in regards to software development that deals with security life-cycles, at least in the logic sense. Someone else can comment in that regard.

kurosaki00

Most people go through Networking/systems/security without touching the math side of systems/communications.
So Its pretty sure you can make it in all of those areas without getting too into math

Personally I think a good security professional (depends on the sec area) will get his hands dirty with the math side.

instant000

If you can handle algebra-like math (that is, solving for unknowns), then you shouldn't have much of an issue with working on anything that you'd face in the future.

I always recommend increasing any networking knowledge that you have, as it just makes everything else easier to understand. (There is a lot of modern computing that depends on systems that talk to each other.)

Hope this helps.

Cisco Inferno

In my experience, computer science degrees have heavy math (calc 2+), physics and programming.
An IT degree may only need Precalculus, or Calc and Stats.
A CIS degree may only need precalc. (Stands for Calculus Impaired Students)

For on the job math, there isnt really much of any college math involved.

Spike12

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

GoodBishop

Actually, I've found as I've moved up the food chain is that my math and programming skills have decreased, and my "prepare a powerpoint for upper management" skills have increased. Heh.

petedude

Most of my career I haven't had to use much past high school algebra. I would tell you, though, that if you move into a management situation that requires heavy number crunching, you may need to have exposure to statistics and first year college algebra. These are primarily going to be positions in logistics and finance, though.

burfect

As a Management Information Systems student I was required to take Pre-Calc as well as Calc, which I despised both equally. In addition to these I was required to take two statistics classes, as well as two operations management classes in which math was involved, but only the most basic of algebra. No physics or calc2 that a CS major may (or may not) encounter.

That being said, I didn't hate or struggle in my Java OOP class nearly half as bad as I did in my calculus work. I always just had the negative "I am never going to use this junk in the real world" mentality when it came to calc and crunching derivitives, which probably aided in my struggling.

Can't say I feel any differen today though, ha.