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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