Pr0gr@mm!ng?

[EchelonVigil]

Good morning all,

Many have asked if programming was needed and here are some thoughts, enjoy.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/everette-powell-565b6a190_ive-been-asked-many-times-and-finally-activ...

[nkeaton]

Well written.  I do disagree though.  I was a business programmer for years.  I have been in cybersecurity since 2008 (it was the very ill named Information Assurance then) and have never needed to program for my work; most of our about 800 people with cybersecurity designations do not program.  For the most part unless someone is specifically in offensive security or some aspects of defensive security that are "hands on" work, they do not need to know how to program in name your flavor Bash, Python, Ruby, Powershell, etc.  I do find that the money grab "schools" try to tell people that they need it.  Of course none of them teach secure coding and just want the person's money.  I mentor people at work and outside.  They need to learn IT and then CS theory, concepts, etc.  Unfortunately the people that might need to code are very few in numbers.  Yes, everyone wants to be an ethical hacker because they think that it sounds cool and sometimes is, but there are definitely very few of those in any organization because it is considered a cost center and does not help the bottom line.  We can disagree but will continue to work to help people to understand basic cybersecurity and not recommend coding unless have a job that specifically requires it.        

[byul]

Hello. Everette Powell.

Looking at the content you wrote, I feel that it is a virtue that is necessary in the future society.

However, I think that not all personnel may think that programming is essential for the content you commented on earlier.

As the times change, it will become a technology that all job professionals will encounter when necessary, and it is judged that each person will have to choose whether to utilize it or not.

However, as generative AI is becoming widespread, it is judged that each person will use it according to their needs, and such changes are being felt in practice.

Therefore, the judgment must be chosen by each person, and it will be a good insight to see the future by listening to others' thoughts through each person's perspective.

Thank you for sharing the good article.

In addition, I would like to share my opinion. Due to the changes in the times, I strongly recommend the use of open source.

There are many high-quality open sources that are getting better, and there are many people who share values.

Thank you again for writing such good content.

[JKWiniger]

The first thing I have to ask is how did the make the image at the start? I'm not really a graphics type of person but I need to learn more about how to be on.

As for the article, I hate to say it but I don't like it. I think it would be much better if you went with how programing would be useful for this position and here is why. If you are a blue teamer then being able to write a run book, or a script, or modify a script would be of value. If you were a security researcher that being able to reverse engineer things or write proof of concepts would help. Talking to developers, if you can read and understand a programs flow would help a lot, but you wouldn't need to know how to write the code yourself, because if you did you would be a developer. An understanding of programing is always good, but then again I always think an understanding of everything or good, if only there were more hours in the day. I think like many other things it comes down to depth of knowledge on a subject. I think if you focused on the different roles and the depth of programing knowledge that would be helpful for each it would be a bit better.

just me .02

John-

[nkeaton]

Thank you.  I definitely agree.  Programming is a bit of an art, and many people are not suited for it.  There is no need to lose good people because that is not something that they can do.  The positions that do require coding for cybersecurity are a very small percentage of the overall workforce for that.  Soft skills such as the ability to communicate are much more important to success of the individual and the organization.    

[dcontesti]

I have a different opinion on this one.

I have found that many times, have programming experience really helps.

In one of positions, I had the luxury of tapping two programmers when needed.  This was negotiated as part of our Crisis Mgmt program.  I had to exercise this right times and between the two of them their were able to dissect/ trace etc the malicious code.

After these folks did their "magic", a couple of my staff came and requested programming training once they saw what had been done.

I also found programming to be useful for folks running tech tools (such as:  NMAP, Finger, Nessus, etc.).  They were able to understand what the tools were actually doing.

Not saying that everyone needs to be a programmer but it definitely helps to have access to one.

d

PS:  I never found programming boring