I’m interested in cybersecurity mainly because it’s a way to stay in the IT field and upgrade my skills and depth of knowledge. For the previous 12 ½ years I was in the Navy working in the IT field. However, as an IT the job you do is very broad, you’re doing networking, sysadmin, cyber security, and radio comms, as well as managing a group of people – along with a million other things shipboard related. Which means while it’s possible to be a master of all, you’re more likely to be just a jack of all trades.

Which leads me to cyber security and why I landed on it in post-Navy college journey. Towards the end of my Navy career I started preparing myself to get out. In my last year I was able to get COMPTIA Security + and Cyber Security Analyst certified, mainly just to pad my resume and help open up some job opportunities. The material was very dry and I was quite sure I was uninterested in the field. Shortly after getting out I got a job as a System Administrator and actually quite enjoy it. However, I work next to one of the company’s sr cyber security analysts and seeing what he does everyday made me more interested in the field and it encouraged me to go back to school and pursue it as a degree. 

It’s also an industry that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and one that every other industry relies on. To touch on that a bit more, here are four majors ODU offers: Nursing, Marketing, Elementary Education, and Criminology. How do they involve cyber security you may ask?

Nursing: Working in the medical field, nurses are in direct connection to a patient’s PII and PHI. If you are working in this field it is vital to protect your patients information. That means locking your computer, keeping your passwords protected, and keeping patient information locked down to those who need it. 

Marketing: Marketing teams work directly with cyber security folks to keep customer information secured as well as creating secure websites/accounts. 

Elementary Education: Web security helps keep elementary classroom networks secure, filtering out any sites that may be too adult for children. 

Criminology: Have a crime that’s been committed? Cyber security goes hand in hand with cyber forensics to secure data in a criminal case, as well as help keep the systems that are holding this information secure.