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Introduction/Method for entry-exposure into the Computer Security field

C

cabri

Diamond Member
Niece is interested in learning details about this area. Why, I do not know.😕

What types of reference material/classes should I try to expose her to.

Set up a meet with a technical school (not ITT Tech ripoffs :hmm🙂?
Online websites to visit?
 
Last edited:
cabri said:
Niece is interested in learning details about this area. Why, I do not know.😕

What types of reference material/classes should I try to expose her to.

Set up a meet with a technical school (not ITT Tech ripoffs :hmm🙂?
Online websites to visit?
Click to expand...

If she is interested in schooling, you might want her to look at some of the Centers of Excellence. But realize that there are no guarantees ...

If she is interested in pursuing employment, she should see if the school offers internships... If you get to meet any of the instructors, be sure to ask if any of them have ever had a security related job. If so, how many of their students have gone to work for that firm?

Best of luck,
Uno
 
Depends on where her current skill level is. Is she comfortable with any *nix OS or just windows? Learning your way around the command prompt is about as intro as you can get. Beyond that I can point in the direction of general DoD based guidelines and requirements I've worked with.
 
RearAdmiral said:
Depends on where her current skill level is. Is she comfortable with any *nix OS or just windows? Learning your way around the command prompt is about as intro as you can get. Beyond that I can point in the direction of general DoD based guidelines and requirements I've worked with.
Click to expand...

She is not a programmer/software engineer. 20 year old trying to find her way - can use MS Windows in general with an old WinXP lappy I provided her.

Uncle makes enough $$ to spoil all his grand daughters; she figures that computers might be a way to go. Computer security is a buzzword that has caught her attention.

I forwarded her the NSA link and have also pointed her to the library for reading material as well as a couple of schools as mentioned above.
 
Hmm....also keep in mind the need for quality security auditors. A decent way to gain experience with the kinds of vulnerabilities out there is through auditing. There are a couple different ways one could probably approach a security career. Through practical experience and sys admin experience or by being good at auditing.

She can either fix stuff or keep track of stuff heh.

I also find it curious that the only other person I heard that was interested in pure computer security knew really nothing about computers. It sounds like she may not know a whole lot...and a winxp machine eh? Can't be too many security professionals using those these days. Or maybe she is that talented haha. Can use winxp and not get nuked by the next zero-day.

Seriously though a good auditor can make all the difference, as can a bad auditor. I wasted way too many hours with linux antivirus(sigh) when I had more pressing security issues to fix.
 
I would agree that practical experience doing system/network administration is a solid foundation for someone to transition into the InfoSec space.

The SANS Reading Room has some very good papers written by security professionals, but there's a chance that a lot of the content is too advanced for her right now. http://www.sans.org/reading-room/

SANS classes are very good, but also expensive. I can't speak for the intro course (SEC301), but I've taken a handful of the more advanced ones. Maybe her family is wealthy enough to pay the cost. If my employer didn't cover the cost, I would probably only take a SANS class if I could get into their work-study program.
 
From my experience....a Help Desk (phone support) job is pretty much the entry point. You learn a lot about computers and networking and then can go from there.

I started Help Desk to Server Support to Security building experience all the way. I got the Help Desk job with an A+ and Net+ certs....as well as a friend at the business who gave me a good referral. All you need is to get a foot in the door and then it's up to the individual.
 
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