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List:       security-basics
Subject:    Re: Security fields
From:       wgoulet () gmail ! com
Date:       2011-04-07 19:15:45
Message-ID: 201104071915.p37JFj10012035 () www5 ! securityfocus ! com
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There are literally hundreds of different sites/resources/blogs covering InfoSec. \
SANS is a very well respected security training organization and frequently has \
columns/papers discussing infosec careers. They even have a top 20 infosec job list: \
http://www.sans.org/20coolestcareers/

As someone who's been in the field for going on 6 years now, my personal perspective \
is that there are 2 very broad categories in InfoSec careers: defenders (blue team) \
and white hat attackers (red team). Pentesting, vulnerability assessments, \
application security assessments and the like fit into the latter category. Internal \
information security jobs such as firewall admins, security analysts, security \
architects, and risk management/security policy development and the like fit into the \
former category.

Broadly speaking, you will find more excitement and action in the red team space \
because you will typically be exposed to a lot of different environments especially \
if you become a consultant. Blue team work tends to be more constant where you are in \
charge of a single environment and are managing risk to that environment. So I \
suppose that one way to think about this decision is to think about what is more \
exciting to you (finding vulnerabilities/weaknesses and reporting them, or the \
satisfaction of knowing that your work is keeping your employer's network safe).

Another thought to consider is that you could also work for a company that makes \
infosec products (A/V vendors, IDS/IPS vendors, identity management vendors etc).

A final closing thought; it has been my experience that you will get more \
satisfaction as an infosec professional if you manage to find a position where your \
role is not considered a pure 'cost center'. Many blue team internal security teams \
tend to be understaffed/overworked/underbudgeted because infosec is not seen as a \
profit center for many organizations. Organizations which genuinely care about \
information security tend to invest more in infosec and will have better funded \
internal security teams. Finding such organizations tends to be rare however because \
infosec initiatives are driven mainly by compliance for many companies, and few orgs \
really like investing money into compliance initiatives. However, other \
organizations, especially service providers tend to be more genuinely interested in \
infosec because it can help improve their bottom line.

Personally, I'm a 'blue team' guy, but I have found the most satisfaction working for \
an infosec vendor. For us, infosec is obviously a profit center ;)

Good luck,
Walter

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