Your Start in Security

the_Grinch

As most of you know I've gotten my first start in a security (like) role. Initially, it was a lot of software testing and then it began to flow into auditing for regulatory compliance. The regulatory compliance side will be continuing for the length of my career. But now I am weaving into the actual hard security side of things (today I loaded Kali on a laptop, setup the wireless card, and started cracking a few wireless access points in the lab). My issue is, I'm being thrown into a lot of different projects at once all requiring slightly different skills (this isn't a complaint as each day is different and I've been made the head of two major projects at this point which is great). My question is, how do you specialize in an environment such as this? Each time I think I know what I should be studying/researching a new item presents itself and I need to switch gears.

docrice

You're in the danger of being stretched thin under the possible assumption that security is a generalized, single-domain subject area that can be accomplished by one person, or the work has just lent itself to touching many different areas for which there typically are dedicated, specialized individuals. I would sort of coin this as a jack-of-all-trades security approach.

Which isn't a bad thing. You're essentially forced to dive into a lot of things simultaneously or serially and it shakes up your status quo, so you can relish this experience. But be wary if there's an expectation of what can be accomplished (and the depth) when the requirements to make it happen doesn't reflect the reality of your resource bucket.