What Is Cybersecurity or Why You Choose Cybersecurity?

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Why You Should Study a Cyber Security Degree in 2020

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In 2020, Cyber Security degrees are more popular than ever. Living in the digital age means hackers and cyberterrorists have endless opportunities to exploit individuals, government institutions, and even large companies.

To defend against cyber attacks and security breaches, top organisations are willing to pay a lot for cyber analysts who can protect their data and remove vulnerabilities.

But is a Cyber Security degree right for you? In order to help you figure it out, we’ll go through everything there is to know about Cyber Security, and all the major questions future prospective students ask before deciding to study a Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Cyber Security:

• What is Cyber Security?
• What will I study during a Cyber Security degree?
• What's the duration of Cyber Security degrees?
• What are the admission requirements for IT Security courses?
• What are the best Cyber Security schools in 2020?
• What are the tuition fees for Cyber Security studies?
• Can I study Cyber Security degrees online?
• Cyber Security scholarships, internships, and hacking contests
• Cyber Security jobs and how much do Cyber Security experts make
• What are some recent trends in Cyber Security? 

Advice from a Cyber Security expert

To give you the best insights about what it means to study Cyber Security and advance to a Cyber Security career, we’ve contacted an expert in the field: Bogdan Botezatu, Senior E-threat Analyst at Bitdefender.

According to his own description: “when he is not documenting sophisticated strains of malware or writing removal tools, he teaches extreme sports such as surfing the web without protection or rodeo with wild Trojan horses.

He believes that most things in life can be beaten with strong heuristics and that anti-malware research is like working for a secret agency: you need to stay focused at all times, but you get all the glory when you catch the bad guys.”

What is Cyber Security?

Cyber Security study programmes teach you how to protect computer operating systems, networks, and data from cyber attacks. You’ll learn how to monitor systems and mitigate threats when they happen.

This is an oversimplification of IT security degrees’ curricula. Each module will have a certain focus, but the overall goal is to help you develop the computing skills needed to prevent attacks and protect people’s data and privacy.

What will I study during a Cyber Security degree?

Because IT Security is still a relatively young discipline, universities and colleges are still figuring out which is the best approach for their degrees. Study programmes and curricula in Cyber Security are different.

Some might focus more on programming, while others place more emphasis on digital forensics, security policies, or broad aspects of Cyber Security. According to the NSA’s 2014 Academic Criteria, IT Security degrees should include classes on:

• Basic Data Analysis
• Basic Scripting or Introductory Programming
• Cyber Defense
• Cyber Threats
• Fundamental Security Design Principles
• Information Assurance Fundamentals
• Intro to Cryptography
• IT Systems Components
• Networking Concepts
• Policy, Legal, Ethics, and Compliance
• System Administration

More advanced modules, especially those at Master’s degree level, can help you specialise in complex topics like Forensic Accounting, Cloud Computing, Cryptography, etc.

When looking at Cyber Security degrees, you should keep an eye on the curriculum of each programme. Make sure they include programming courses and choose the ones that offer hands-on experience, which is invaluable both for you and for future employers.

According to Bogdan: “Right now, people new to cyber-security have way more options - interactive classes with extremely skilled tutors, internships in well-established cyber-security companies, local conferences and cyber-security talks.”

However, he goes on saying that “back in my day - and to some extent even now – Cyber Security was not something you'd learn in school. The curriculum is great in terms of teaching algorithms and programming, but not that much with Cyber Security and reverse engineering. These are skills that I learnt outside classrooms, thanks to the power of the Internet.”

This means that while Cyber Security degrees are a great starting point, they will not teach you everything you need to know about this field. Keep an open mind and develop your skills outside the academic environment as well.

What's the duration of Cyber Security degrees?

• Bachelor’s degrees in Cyber Security take 3 or 4 years in most countries.
• Master’s courses in Cyber Security take between 1-2 years to complete.
• PhD programmes in Cyber Security last 3-5 years. Some only take 1 or 2 years, but they are less common.