Triad Security Consulting

How will the job market be for IT-security specialists in the near future?

I’m thinking about 5-6 years from now. For someone with a master of science in computer science/security.

Well I’m in it and we’re desperate for talent. It may be endemic of the big defense contractor for whom i work, I can’t tell. To get where I did, i got a bs in comp sci, and i’m glad I never did drugs because I would not have passed the background check.

You’re probably thinking that this is the kind of thing that can’t be outsourced. I had the same thought, and turns out I was right.

It also depends heavily on the area where you’re coming up. The DC area is really the epicenter of the the field, NSA, CIA, DIA, DISA, every branch of the military except possibly the national guard, always have a demand.

Other than that its only the really big corporations that can dedicate people to this.

Now what do you do with a security degree.

There’s the position of infosec analyst. Depending on how advanced you are, determines what you do. You could be some monkey watching alerts, or you could be going thru packet dumps determining what exactly’s taking place. This job needs done around the clock, so it’s shift work.

There’s the position of IA software engineer. Pretty self-explanatory.

With a masters you’d be greasing the skids to cruise right into a management position, or perhaps a place at one of the heavyweight brain buckets like google. perhaps.

If i could go back, the one thing i’d do over is i’d take an internship. And an interest in the field. IA for me was only an upper level elective. If i were you, i’d get the backtrack iso and just… play with it. Metasploit’s really really fun.

You’ve probably heard of those guys who hack a company’s computer to prove that they are needed. That’s no joke. There’s a demand for white hat hackers. You should try pwnzing computers on your own network, no harm in knowing.