Re: OS to know.

[Cory Stoker <cory () clearnetsec com>]

Mark:

This is a really broad question to answer without saying any OS could  
be used in either sector.  For example many state and city  
governments are using Linux more and more in addition to Windows and  
commercial Unixes like HP-UX and Solaris.  In the private sector it  
is just as plentiful in variety.  A lot of this depends on what you  
want to do?  For example many security practitioners now do  
vulnerability assessments and audits of systems and they tend to  
specialize in a certain area, for example financial institutions  
using Solaris.  Another way to look
at it is that many security applications are run on a Linux, FreeBSD,  
or OpenBSD platform.  To be able to fully utilize these tools would  
require some OS knowledge of the platform they reside on.  Really I  
would try to learn the basics of any OS that you can get your hands  
on.  Knowing your way around the different Unixes, Linux  
distributions, and windows type OSes comes in real handy in a  
security career.  This is now becoming more true as the Unixes are  
looking less like each other every release, take the Solaris SMF as  
an example.  Security does not exist by itself, you must secure  
something and that something is varied which is why security can be a  
hard discipline to start off in.

---
Cory Stoker
ClearNet Security

On Oct 11, 2005, at 2:12 PM, John Williams wrote:

> I am a graduate student at George Mason University obtaining my MS  
> in Information Security and Assurance. What operating system is  
> used more for security administration in the private sector versus  
> the government sector? Pretty much I would like to know what  
> operating system I should focus on if I wanted to pursue a  
> government career in security or if I wanted to purse a career in  
> the private sector. Thanks.
>
>
> Mark Jacobs
>
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