4 ms·

I object to your dismissal of my industry as "configuring firewalls and installing AV". Certainly the security industry is not for everyone, but it does have a

I object to your dismissal of my industry as "configuring firewalls and installing AV". Certainly the security industry is not for everyone, but it does have a wide variety of interesting challenges ranging from highly theoretical to highly applied. My friends and coworkers in the security community do everything from mathematics to public policy, with no small amount of software engineering and systems design in between. Many governments and members of private industry also face a significant labor shortage in security right now, which provides a certain motivation for this agency to suggest it to people. A lot of people in the security industry would not even consider "configuring firewalls and installing AV" to be security work, in most organizations that rests with the sysadmins and network engineers, who also have a varied and challenging field.

throwawayukcyb 11y ago
I think you've misinterpreted me. The problem is not that security work isn't interesting. The problem is that the sorts of security-related things a teacher/parent is most likely to point their children to (most likely the school's IT staff or some ridiculous certification exam) aren't interesting. Basically, my advice is to scrap what the article suggests and instead prefer "intellectually stimulating" to "related to security" when diverting a bright child's interests. It's often easy to find something sufficiently intellectually stimulating if you don't focus on security. Also, something related to security isn't necessarily at all intellectually stimulating (again, please don't flip my quantifier...). > I object to your dismissal of my industry as "configuring firewalls and installing AV". This wasn't my intention. FTR I respect security professionals and IT folk of all stripes. But there are boring jobs in every indsutry. My observation is only that diverting a student to the nearest person whose job has anything to do with "cyber security" is not likely to end with that student showing up at a security research lab. Similarly, I think it's a laughably bad idea to try to get a kid who is already checking out of school to prep for something like a CREST certification exam. > Certainly the security industry is not for everyone This was more my other point. I doubt that most students who are interested in computers and who are also acting out using computers are necessarily interested in computer security. I think that assuming this fundamentally misunderstands/conflates two very different things going on in the student's life -- their interest in computers/science/technology, and anti-social behavior. > A lot of people in the security industry would not even consider "configuring firewalls and installing AV" to be security work Unfortunately most of the teachers/parents reading that webpage are unlikely to know the difference.
- jcrawfordor 11y ago
  I get your meaning now. I would agree with you on this then - and I have seen various programs to get K12 students into or more knowledgeable about security and they've often been fairly terrible. I'm curious to evaluate the ones they refer to, but I don't have high hopes.

throwawayukcyb 11y ago

I think you've misinterpreted me. The problem is not that security work isn't interesting. The problem is that the sorts of security-related things a teacher/parent is most likely to point their children to (most likely the school's IT staff or some ridiculous certification exam) aren't interesting. Basically, my advice is to scrap what the article suggests and instead prefer "intellectually stimulating" to "related to security" when diverting a bright child's interests. It's often easy to find something sufficiently intellectually stimulating if you don't focus on security. Also, something related to security isn't necessarily at all intellectually stimulating (again, please don't flip my quantifier...). > I object to your dismissal of my industry as "configuring firewalls and installing AV". This wasn't my intention. FTR I respect security professionals and IT folk of all stripes. But there are boring jobs in every indsutry. My observation is only that diverting a student to the nearest person whose job has anything to do with "cyber security" is not likely to end with that student showing up at a security research lab. Similarly, I think it's a laughably bad idea to try to get a kid who is already checking out of school to prep for something like a CREST certification exam. > Certainly the security industry is not for everyone This was more my other point. I doubt that most students who are interested in computers and who are also acting out using computers are necessarily interested in computer security. I think that assuming this fundamentally misunderstands/conflates two very different things going on in the student's life -- their interest in computers/science/technology, and anti-social behavior. > A lot of people in the security industry would not even consider "configuring firewalls and installing AV" to be security work Unfortunately most of the teachers/parents reading that webpage are unlikely to know the difference.

jcrawfordor 11y ago
I get your meaning now. I would agree with you on this then - and I have seen various programs to get K12 students into or more knowledgeable about security and they've often been fairly terrible. I'm curious to evaluate the ones they refer to, but I don't have high hopes.