Considering majoring in “information security and network engineering”. Will this course leave me between two different career paths?

Question

I am interested in majoring in something related to cybersecurity, so I read about it and looked up the college programs near me. The only course that I found relating to it in Jordan (my home country) is ISNE.

Here is the courses in the program: (pages 5 to 7 are the ones that really matter)

I read that there is a difference between information security and network security and this left me confused whether or not these are two different career paths. Is it like mechatronics, Which is kind of a mix between electrical and mechanical engineering and some stuff? Can anyone who is knowledgeable clear my doubts and guide me to how I could further educate myself about the topic?

Answer 1

The short answer is 'no', it is not a malformed degree. The curriculum is very broad to give you a broad foundation in the IT and cybersecurity field.

To say "cybersecurity" is like saying "medicine"; there are so many branches and specialities under that one word.

So you will not be between career paths, but you will not have a clear career path, either. In other college programs that look like this, the idea is to give you a little bit of knowledge in a lot of different areas so that you can choose what you want to study.

Answer 2

I am a professor of cyber security in a graduate school, so take that in to account when you read my answer :)

It looks like a great curriculum. By making you take courses like Data Structures you will be a well rounded computer scientists. By including network engineering as well you will be able to better understand how things like malware communicate on the network.

This broad coursework that includes info sec classes as well will let you graduate and pursue the areas of infosec that interest you most.

Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions you'd like to discuss privately.

As a note, I have had 100% placement at graduation of all my students in the 4 years since I have created the program.