UK Spy Agency Certifies Master's Degrees In Cyber Security 45
An anonymous reader writes Intelligence agency GCHQ has just accredited six UK universities to teach Master's degrees in online security that meet the intelligence agency's "stringent criteria." From the press release: "The certification of six Master's degrees in Cyber Security was announced by Rt.Hon Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he visited GCHQ today. This marks another significant step in the development of the UK's knowledge, skills and capability in all fields of Cyber Security as part of the National Cyber Security Programme. The National Cyber Security Strategy recognises education as key to the development of Cyber Security skills and, earlier in the year, UK universities were invited to submit their Cyber Security Master's degrees for certification against GCHQ's stringent criteria for a broad foundation in Cyber Security."
I needed that laugh of the day, thanks! (Score:5, Insightful)
The most clueless people I've ever met working with IT, are those that work with the company's security. They have an exact set of rules to follow, and nothing else. They monitor their companies outgoing - ingoing data for certain things, and block certain services. They also have a strict policy on mobile devices, cellphones, USB-memory devices and usually give their employees their own...monitored...laptops, everything within a guaranteed controlled environment.
Except that "Guaranteed" part, because there are really no such thing as a guarantee within computer security, the only way to truly learn computer security is to practice hacking, thinking like a hacker, be a hacker and yes...have the same incentives as a cracker would have, and the fun a hacker would have solving new puzzles, breaking into new systems, learning every corner of that hardware inside out. You can't TEACH that at a school, heck...not even the most experienced hacker in the WORLD can teach ANYONE these things, there is so much...and you need to know everything from scratch, everything else is just being a well mannered script-kiddie that would be totally clueless if they received a "virus" that no one of their hardware/software systems could detect, simply because the programmer is so clever (we're talking hackers here, just in case you mistook a programmer for a programmer instead of a hacker, hint hint, wink wink and nudge nudge). And the reason they can't detect it, is because it's not been discovered yet. How can you teach that?!
Kids today don't even know what vectors are, they have NO clue how the bios work, gawd...I'm gonna grab myself a bag of popcorn and watch this freak show.
Bizarre (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like the Mafia certifying degrees in extortion and smuggling, or drug cartels certifying degrees in meth amphetamine production.
They were caught breaking the law multiple times and without remorse, yet carry on like nothing has changed.