Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 2/25/2009

Question
Hello. I have a question relating to the industry of network security and administration. Kudos on the Nietzsche quote (profile). One of my most influential reads. My question is this: I love software theory, algorithms, starting with a project/problem and fixing it. But I also love the picture I've built in my head regarding the ongoing battle between malevolent hackers and the network professionals who're hired to fend off those people and protect the integrity of data and network functionality. Of course I would consider myself on the benevolent side of the spectrum. My quandary is, I am about to start my junior year of college and, after getting general education requirements out of the way, I'm beginning to take courses relevant to my major (computer science), and I'm not sure which courses to take. I could beef-up on network security courses and shy away somewhat from the programming languages and theory, or I could do the opposite. In your experience, do network admins. get paid well as compared to software engineers or computer programmers? I'm just unsure about where I should take my schooling. If I should be a network engineer and create software as a hobby or if I should be a programmer, design patches and such, and have a vested interest in network security as a side note. Confused. Thanks again.
~M.

Answer
First of all, have you become a student member yet of the IEEE? You get a special low rate if you are a student. The IEEE (www.ieee.org) is one of the biggest and most effective professional societies in the world, one to which I belong; over the years the IEEE has published some of my technical papers and one of my popular articles, on electromagnetic guns.

You can get an excellent idea of career prospects for network security  as compared with software theory at the IEEE career site for computer professionals, http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/careers

I hope you'll choose to go for the big picture, which means algorithms etc. That's what I did and I've never regretted it. No matter how much the technologies of computer and communications security change, if you understand the foundations of reality itself, you're ahead of the game.

For example, what happens when quantum computing and communications become practical? If you understand the factors that can create or destroy entanglement, if you understand the mathematics of complexity theory,you'll fit right in with this impending revolution. Meanwhile, the people who are limited to traditional computer and network security will be deer in the headlights.

If you are willing to take this hard road, which will probably require that you get an advanced degree, I guarantee you'll also have a ton of fun. For example, if you go ahead and also become a student member of the American Association for Advancement in Science (AAAS), (www.aaas.org), every week you'll get a journal with some easy to read summaries of advances in all scientific and mathematical fields, as well as the world's finest research papers. For example, the 30 Jan 2009 issue has a review article related to recent research on quantum encrypted communications, "Sudden Death of Entanglement," pg. 598. Your school should have it in the library. It is a big deal -- the "discovery that correlation between two quantum units of information called qubits can be degraded by environmental noise in a way not seen previously... this new route for dissipation attacks quantum entanglement... as the essential feature in...the fate of Schrodinger's cat."

Hah! Are you hooked?

As someone who has studied Nietzsche, you sound like the type who won't settle for mediocrity. I'm hoping that someday you'll shake the world, shape the future.