Cybersecurity is one of my passions because it allows me to help people while also allowing me to do things that I enjoy. Cybersecurity itself provides me with a sense of constant intellectual stimulation because there are always new things to learn, new problems to solve, and new opportunities to implement what you’ve learned on problems that need to be solved.
Majors that have peaked my interests that would pair well with cybersecurity relate mainly to understanding human behavior and human nature. Psychology would be beneficial for implementing measures both internally and externally relating more to the discernment of a single user. Understanding why an authorized user could potentially allow an attack to occur is important so that actions can be taken to raise awareness, such as providing thorough employee training on these attack methods. And understanding why an unauthorized user wants to infiltrate an IT environment is essential as it allows for a more strategical and/or systematic approach to implementing security controls that can help prevent attacks. Sociology would be beneficial for the same aspects but would relate more to the social dynamics involved or the ethics of a group of users. To explain this concept in an example: A community of hackers on the internet could commit acts that may seem unethical to others i.e., the people that are trying to protect what is being attacked or the people who bear witness to these attacks, while to the community of hackers it may seem completely ethical because they may have good intentions/motivations for either themselves or for others that they may have to provide for.
Other majors that I find interesting, that would be increasingly useful when paired with cybersecurity, relate to how an IT environment functions and operates and the analysis of data. Computer science would be beneficial because it provides a better understanding of skills and principles that are often used in the cybersecurity industry. Gaining a better understanding of computer science principles like algorithms, data structures, operating systems, programming, etc., is important because cybersecurity requires a relatively broad comprehension of these principles. Data science & analytics would prove to be valuable by providing the ability to concentrate security/defense efforts. Certain businesses’ and industries’ assets are specifically targeted over others; being able to identify these patterns of attacks is important for developing and implementing security controls that could prevent future attacks on these assets.