The End (Part 2)

Week 12

Over a year and a half ago, I posted a blog entitled The End.  That blog discussed the class that was finishing at the time (Information Security Management).  Well, it is now the end of not just another current class but also my MS in Cybersecurity degree.  I have learned a lot over the course of the past 2 years.  I will have to say that I have a much stronger understanding of everything that goes on behind the scenes to make a company more secure, not just in the network but as a whole.  Some classes were great; others were not.

If I were to have to pick a class that was the hardest on me, it would have to be Computer Forensics.  The reading and writing in that class was by far the hardest to put my head around.  The class that I would have to chose as the easiest on me would have been none of them but my favorite was Risk Management Studies.  Being able to look at risks in a different light than I already was really made me respect the topic much more than I already did.

Going into my final class (Current Trends in Cybersecurity), I would have to say that I wish I would have known more about threats; threat modeling in general.  Jumping right into this subject in the first week got me very worried that I was not ready for it, but I overcame the fears and was able to learn the subject matter.  Threat modeling was by far the hardest part of the class.  I feel that if I would have had the proper text material, it would have been easier for me, but with the lack of material, it was not that fun to deal with.

If I could do it over, I would have worked it to only take Current Trends by itself in the final session rather than taking another heavily active class.  Taking just the one class would have helped calm my nerves down during the weeks while doing my research for both classes.  Even though all classes built up to the Current Trends class, it did work out for me in the long run taking the one I did along with it (Security Architecture & Design).  The two classes built off the same scenario so I had the scenario fresh in my mind on a weekly basis.

Overall, the Cybersecurity degree at Bellevue University is not for the faint of heart, so to speak.  I went into the degree thinking that it was going to be more of just IT Security subjects.  Cybersecurity is an entire view of IT security.  It encompasses everything dealing with IT security and even physical security.  The word of advice to those that think they are getting into an easy degree; you are not.  Not that I came into this degree thinking that; I just felt that with my experience with IT security, I would do just fine.  I will say, though, that this was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  This degree has taught me everything I wanted to know and more.