Introduction
During my time at Old Dominion University, I spent a a majority of my time working towards a cybersecurity degree. While pursuing my degree in cyber security I learned a lot of skills that all work together and separately to make up a lot of the careers that are found in Information Technology jobs. The base of my degree is comprised of learning the numerous operating systems that govern most IT systems; by learning Linux, Windows, and interactions that those operating systems have with local networks I gained an understanding of basic information technology ideas and concepts. The second leg of my journey into cybersecurity was learning how basic information technology systems interact with one another and the greater internet, by learning networking concepts and how they apply to cybersecurity, and IT I gained skills that work towards being able to apply networking concepts in a professional environment. Lastly, I learned the concepts of cybersecurity how they apply to the basics of information technology and networking concepts, but also, I learned how to write about those experiences and learned how to communicate those basics with an emphasis on the cybersecurity perspective. The skills that I learned over the course of my degree are all incorporated into three major categories of skillsets, basic information technology, networking, and cybersecurity, giving me a wide array of different career path to walk down. The one skill that I gained throughout the entirety of my degree is how to communicate effectively technology trends and concepts in a way that is easy to read, well referenced, and easily understood, as selected works from my three main skill sets will show.
Basics of Information Technology: Help Desk
The first skillset I learned throughout my career at Old Dominion University was the basics of information technology, through practice, a sense of familiarity, and how to communicate what I know and know how to do. The first example of my work in Information Technology is demonstrated through CYSE 270: Linux Group and User Accounts, in this example I was given a set of basic Linux tasks to complete, by going through this task and many others like it, I gained a good understanding of the basics of Linux, both from a server and operating system perspective. The next example of my work, CYSE 280: Active Directory Research Paper represents the culmination of an entire class dedicated to understanding and being familiar with the Windows Server Environment, another key base component of most information technology settings; by expressing one of my most used elements of a Windows Server, active directory, I demonstrate not only an understanding of that service but also how I can effectively communicate the ideas and concepts surrounding it and Windows in general. The last example of my understanding of, and ability to communicate, basic information technology is through a paper that incorporates those ideas into a basic cybersecurity concept, namely cybersecurity itself. While this paper might more demonstrate an understanding of cybersecurity, I believe it represents an understanding of Cybersecurity from a basics standpoint, this paper represents a transition from the basics to more advanced concepts attached to cybersecurity itself.
CYSE 270: Linux Group and User Accounts.
CYSE 280: Active Directory Research Paper.
CYSE 200T – Rise of Cyberattacks
Basics of Networking
The next step on my career in cybersecurity was delving into the basics of networking and how networking applies to both information technology and cybersecurity itself. The class that first introduced me to networking was CS 462, computer networking; in computer networking I learned the basics of networking and more importantly how different layers of networking interact with each other to create connections between devices. A good example of this class would be in CS 462: Rootkit Attack, this paper kind of ties in a lot of what I was learning at that time with communicating that knowledge over a specific topic. Where I learned most of my networking knowledge was through the various hacking concepts that are covered throughout the Cybersecurity curriculum, this is best shown through my experiences in CYSE 450, which taught an intermediate level of hacking knowledge. The best example of how networking was taught through CYSE 450 is through the assignment shown in CYSE 450: Packet Sniffing, this assignment taught us how to find open devices on a network and how to infiltrate those devices using networking understanding; more than that to get to this point we had to set up our own workstations on their own networks, which was a good practice on top of prior networking knowledge from CS 462. The last example I chose for my networking examples was another paper written about cyber defense from the perspective of how to deal with it from a networking perspective, this paper talks about a basic concept of a way to prevent cyber-attacks, it acts as a good segway from my networking understanding to my cyber security experiences.
CS 462: Rootkit Attack
CYSE 450 – Packet Sniffing
CS 462 – Ransomware
Cybersecurity
After learning the basics of networking and information technology, the last part of my career at Old Dominion University has been focused on the concepts of cybersecurity, with some emphasis on different avenues of cyber security. Cyber security represents more a way of thinking on various topics and procedures more than a specific set of skills. The first really good example of the complexity of cyber security is through my experiences in CYSE 407, or Digital Forensics, this class showed one of the many career paths I can take just in Cybersecurity itself, this class was about how to use cybersecurity to aid law enforcement in collecting digital evidence of crimes. The assignment, CYSE 407 – Digital Forensics Lab, is about how to set up a lab in preparation for extracting information from a target’s computer, and how to set up a lab to best carry out the first step of a digital forensics case. In a number of different career paths, including Digital Forensics, the understanding of laws and how they relate to our work in Cybersecurity was covered in a fairly rigorous course; CYSE 406 Cyber Law was a class that taught the basics of legal understanding from a cyber security perspective, not only did it teach those concepts but most of the coursework demanded a complete understanding of the individual topics. There will be times in the career of a cyber law expert, not necessarily a lawyer or judge, where it is imperative to explain a cyber concept and how it pertains to constitutional law to people who do not have the technical experience or background to understand career specific language; in the assignment titled CYSE 406 – Cyber Law, I demonstrate how to address legal concepts in cyber security from a non-technical standpoint while also demonstrating my understanding of law. One of the more obscure career fields in Cyber security involves cryptography, where messages, images, or even connections are concealed using mathematical approaches to changing the internal or external elements of a file or document, this is covered in the class CS 463 – Introduction to Cryptography. One of the best examples of my writing work from my career in cybersecurity comes from CS 463 in the document, CS 463 – Cryptocurrency, this paper required a culmination of understanding from a networking and information technology standpoint to discuss the implications of a modern computer topic through the lens of cybersecurity.
CYSE 407 – Digital Forensics Lab
CYSE 406 – Cyber Law
CS 463 – Cryptocurrency
Overview
Summing up my skills into my greatest skill, through most of my work above it should be pretty evident that my greatest skill is communication, in every class I have taken I have not only learned the technology and the concepts behind cybersecurity, but also how to communicate it from an explanatory to planning perspective.