Comment by techjuice | Hacker News Reader

Comment by techjuice | Hacker News Reader

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Hopefully they will have something more advanced in the future, possibly calling it Masters of Science in Cyber Engineering with course work similar to the following:

  [*]Introduction to Graph Design and Theory
  [*]Secure Network Design, Theory and Implementation
  Introduction to Analog and Digital Signal Processing
  [*]Assembly for IA-32 and x86_64
  Assembly for PowerPC, MIPS and ARM
  [*]C/C++ Programming for Windows, Linux and MacOS
  C/C++ Programming for Android, iOS and Embedded Systems
  [*]Python Programming
  [*]Advanced Python Programming
  [*]Automated Testing Theory and Implementation
  Advanced Graph Theory
  Introduction to Game Theory
  Advanced Game Theory
  Building Secure Scaleable Systems and Networks
  Building Big Data Analytics Systems
  [*]Automated Defense and Offensive Systems Theory and Implementation
  [*]Information Assurance Policy
  [*]Reverse Engineering Windows, Linux and MacOS
  Reverse Engineering Mobile Devices and Embedded Devices
  Reverse Engineering SCADA Systems
  Advanced Analog and Digital Signals Processing
  Cryptography for Engineers
  [*]Vulnerability Research Theory and Methods

Updated - [*] Core courses.

If the individual could make it through the above, they would be very knowledgable, experienced and ready for many of the hard problems in the realm of cyber that employers are wanting in extremely high demand.

Your list strikes me as significantly more than a typical master's degree would cover.

Yes, that list does look bit overblown. Most MS in US need you to take 12 classes, each of 3 credits = 36 credits to graduate.

Yeah, many would probably have to be broken down into electives, but if all of them were taken the graduate would be an extremely strong cyber engineer versus the current easy cyber degrees that are available now that do not really cover what cyber engineering employers are looking for. Most of the degrees are very general and do not go into depth or build a strong engineer during the process.

I would have to guess a Ph.D. in Cyber Engineering to start off near the Vulnerability Research work. Starting with a higher emphasis on research in cryptography, building tamper resistant systems, maintaining integrity and confidentiality on mobile desktop, server, SCADA and embedded systems.

Then kernel development, in depth work with creating custom applications that deal with TCP and UDP security and analysis, deep dives into the inner working on how various IoT devices work, building autonomous cyber reasoning systems, automated cyber ranges, and or automated policy client/server enforcement systems.

A PhD is about doing novel work and pushing the state-of-the-art, you can't get a coursework based PhD.

> A PhD is about doing novel work and pushing the state-of-the-art, you can't get a coursework based PhD.

That's the USA philosophy of advanced degrees; it does not reflect the practice of every country.

And given standard scholarly impact statistics for completed theses, it arguably doesn't reflect reality either. Maybe we should start admitting that most PhD candidates haven't made a significant contribution to the state-of-the-art, most future candidates aren't going to, and the nominal requirement to do so isn't helpful?

A Ph.D. is mainly about research, the courses you take leading up to your dissertation should still teach you more in-depth technology to help insure you are an expert in the field of the degree at the graduate level. Without this in-depth course load you will have weak research and would not have a good in grasp to be able to create anything new, state of the art that helps push the industry forward through advanced research along with being employable.

If you come in the door with these credentials you will be highly qualified to be at least a principal cyber engineer. Your in depth research would makes serious waves in the industry and with real world experience it would be an amazing win-win situation for you and the company that hires you, or even better your own business doing cyber research.

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