Cybersecurity-which ROTC program?

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Myopiczeal

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When considering a career in cybersecurity, does it make a difference if you choose AFROTC, NROTC or AROTC? All braches stress it’s importance, but based on the marketing materials it seems the Air Force is better positioned for a career in Cybersecurity, but is that true?
 
Im not sure which branch is better but more important is what school you pick. I know Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech have a great Cyber programs . They have AF, and Navy ROTC there. I think CM also has Army.
 
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@Myopiczeal, start your exploration by determining whether you’re willing to serve as a commissioned officer, regardless of occupation. While it’s good to aspire to a certain occupation or field or specialty, it’s by no means guaranteed. A lot of things can affect what job you eventually get, including the infamous “needs of the military.” In that same vein, consider first which branch/mission is most appealing to you. They’ll each approach cyber security a bit differently, and again, what if you can’t do cyber security?
 
Myopiczeal said:
When considering a career in cyber security, does it make a difference if you choose AFROTC, NROTC or AROTC? All braches stress it’s importance, but based on the marketing materials it seems the Air Force is better positioned for a career in Cybersecurity, but is that true?
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Ultimately, this is where you may want to serve part of your career. United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). Cyber is now its own separate 4 Star Command. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cyber_Command. It is a joint command operation based in Fort Meade, Maryland. It is about 30 minutes from USNA. No matter who does what, this is where you want to do your rotation once in your career if you are Cyber. I believe, USNA will be the largest COE "Center of Excellence" in the country due to its proximity to Cyber Com and NSA, and 1oo% DoD funding in cooperation with the private sector. USNA is currently building a state of the art Cyber Building on the ground of USNA that will allow learning access to other services including DHS. The Cyber Building is next to the Alumni Hall. It will be completed in couple of years, so the current class of 2022 will benefit the most, even though USNA has been offering the Major for couple of years now. The curriculum has been designed and optimize for the Class of 2022. I believe Cyber major is going to be offered more widely at many top US universities and time will tell who will be the best program in the next 10 years. Today, only few offer the degree program at the college level, and certainly the Naval Academy will be either the best or one of the best programs in the world due to its institutional focus, national level investment, and resources and access available to the Academy. This year the Naval Academy claimed the Cyber Title back again in the national competition with other Cyber Schools and Institutions. West Point is also a very strong player in Cyber even though they don't have a formal major yet at USMA. But pretty sure it will soon offer its own Cyber major.
 
I'll just say this, as the father in law of a soon to be Major in the Cyber field with the Air Force, I can tell you the field is very demanding of your time. Training seems relatively constant and travel is expected as well. You'll be gone for a month at a time on a regular basis at times. It's obviously not an easy field either as at least one of his schools had over a 50% failure rate.
 
Here's what my NROTC midshipman did.

Find the best schools and their ratings via the NSA/DOD centers of excellence in cyber security. Google it.

Cross reference with which schools have each ROTC program

Cross reference that with your in state schools and formulate a Plan A, B, C

My son also met with analysts and operators from 2 branches. They all encouraged him to go Navy for many different reasons.

I'm not gonna tell you what I think is best, just help you find your best path.

I am partial to Norwich as Mack Hall Is a $50M building dedicated to CSIA and Norwich is one of only a handful that has a digital forensics concentration where you'll have almost a dozen certifications and real world experience under your belt before you graduate. Professors there also get to hand select a handful of students each summer to intern at federal agencies because of the program quality. Visit if you can.
 
I agree with Walman888 and DesertCaliMom, that Norwich is probably the best Cyber program in the nation today or at least the best program offered by a non Academy program. It is my belief that many top schools will catch up over the next 10 years as this new Cyber program becomes increasingly important and the industry grows to $400 billion industry in 5 years. DS also seriously considered Norwich Cyber major to the end. In fact, Norwich will go out of their way to offer candidates a complete solution, academically, militarily, and financially. For those considering Norwich, the school offers many great majors, although limited, the military college option, and a full financial aid ranging from Provost Scholarship, additional academic scholarship to supplement 100% tuition room & board. If you have ROTC Scholarship, the school will apply your ROTC Scholarship to pay for your tuition first and use other scholarship awards to pay for 100% of your needs. If you are academically talented then they will invite you to their scholar's program where you will be asked to maintain 3.5 GPA each year to qualify for academic scholarship in addition what they offer you each year. So the package is incredible. My DS was offered these awards, but in the end, he chose the Naval Academy because he felt that the Naval Academy offered the best solution and the brand throughout his life in pursuit of his aspirations. This will be different for everyone! So no one size fits all.

When you decide, my recommendation would be to choose the school first that meets your overall needs, then the major. Once at your school, you will consider changing major at least once or twice. It is better to stick to the school you personally want to belong to your lifetime. Your service and employers also place the greatest care where you went to school then your major. Later in your career, employers really don't care much about your major anymore rather your career advancement and jobs you held will supersede all. So your major is second in importance when you apply for your FIRST job. Thereafter, it is more about your performance and jobs you had, and what people say and think about you. Your personal performance record, opinions and perception will matter a lot!
 
As a clarification: there are actually two NSA/DHS certifications. The first is Cyber Defense (formerly Information Assurance), a lot of schools have this. This is what Norwich has. The other, more technical certification, is Cyber Operations. There aren’t many schools that have this certification. I believe USNA/USAFA have it, maybe USMA. Carnegie Melon has it, I believe Texas A&M has it as well. In some if not many cases, it is a concentration with in a Comp Sci major because the program requires the more rigorous technical foundation. I bring this up because you may seek out one program over another depending on your interests. If you’re into policy, strategy, investigations, etc (a broad swath at cyber security), then a program like Norwich is great. You won’t have to spend as much time in the weeds in deep CS classes, that may not interest you. If, on the other hand, you are really interested in the nitty gritty of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities to conduct CNO, a school with the cyber ops certification may be something more to look at. I’d also be careful about going NROTC/USNA if you’re strictly interested in cyber, because these programs generally require service in the unrestricted line before opportunities arise to transfer to cyber/intel etc. This is likely shifting, but maybe not fast enough for you. In USA and USAF, cyber is treated the same (more or less) as infantry or pilot. Cyber is now unrestricted line in the USMC as well, but this is very new for them.
 
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VMI2017 This is great info. Cyber is offered in Plebe Year so worth exploring before declaring. I hope Cyber Ops is what DS will enjoy. I don’t think he would enjoy too deep dive into technical CS Classes although it should be the foundation. My DS is not strictly interested in Cyber. Don’t think he sees himself as a computer nerd rather a computer savvy literate who enjoys the cyber space strategic combat battle space. I also would not recommend going directly into Cyber from USNA. I would like him to get SWO or what ever Ops first for min 3 years before considering Cyber in his year 3-5. Perhaps Cyber is like Intel where very few kids who are injured or who cannot otherwise get ships or other communities to go direct. We are strongly not recommended to take Intel nor Cyber at commission. I tend to agree as you will not get a leadership experience on a ship sub or aviation. And Aviation is another whole different Commissioning path and schooling upon graduation. It is the same in the Army and Coast Guard. However Air Force seems to encourage from the start. We spoke with the Cyber and Intel communities with the Army Air Force Navy and the Coast Guard. And that was their feedback that we learned so far.
 
I have a son in the AFROTC detachment at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (which has the coveted NSA Cyber Operations certification). He is in the cyber operations track. It came down to a choice between Norwich, UNO, and Dakota State University (which also has the cyber ops certification). The cyber ops certification and the detachments coordination and mentor opportunities with Offutf and Stratcom in Omaha were the deciding factors. I'm not so sure that I would make the claim that Norwich has the best cybersecurity program in the nation. I think there are many factors that go into making any claim of the best. It comes down to a student needing to decide what is best for them. My son has only ever wanted to branch AF and would be okay in some other AF line. The mission of AF is air, space and cyberspace and there seems to be more opportunities for tech positions in the AF if one does not go strictly cyber. However, this is going to vary greatly depending on individual experiences. You need to decide the branch first since cyber is not a guarantee and then start making your decision from there.
 
Each of the services manages their cybersecurity fields slightly differently. A good overview is as follows
Army- The Army established a separate Cyber Branch in 2014. They focus on conducting offensive cyber operations (hacking) and defensive operations. As a junior officer you would likely be on a cyber team and as of now based at Fort Gordon, Georgia or Fort Meade, Maryland. Their are some other sites and deployment opportunities are frequent. The Army is looking at merging the capability with electronic warfare as well.
Navy- Cyber is a part of the cryptologic community so you would rotate to cyber positions from the larger community.
Air Force- Cyber is a separate field with chances similar to Army.
Marine Corps- Cyber is not yet a separate MOS but looks like USMC will move that way and train with Army.
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I can tell you from the Army side the school won't matter as much as your academic preparation.

Finally, as you look at your academic programs consider what it is the school means when they say cyber program. Most of these will be to position as network administrators or code writers. That doesn't necessarily tie over with what the military is doing with cyber. Reviewing the NSA site it looks like the better tie in for a military career in cyber is the NSA Cyber Operations. The Cyber Defense while worthwhile may be focusing you more in the network administrator role which in some branches will be the communications field.
 
emwvmi01 said:
Marine Corps- Cyber is not yet a separate MOS but looks like USMC will move that way and train with Army.
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DS, a USMC Communications Officer keeps telling me the same thing. He's been sticking his toe in the water, writing up some proposals as a staff member. I've been trying to encourage him to go in that direction if he is able, but I'm just his Dad. I'm sure his girlfriend will have far more input on this than I.... and that's as it should be.
 
I am a high school junior taking courses like AP Calc AB/BC and AP Physics. I plan on majoring in computer science in college. My main interest is cyber security. I am looking hard at colleges with great computer science reputations, e.g., Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, University of Illinois, University of Michigan. I am not interested in active duty. I would prefer to get my masters degree soon after receiving my bachelors. The Army Cyber School is the longest technical school they have at 44-weeks long – Cyber Operations Officer (17A) at Fort Gordon in Georgia. This cyber technical school begins mid-September and graduates at the end of July. Being so long, the Army appears very willing to spend a bunch of money on training officers in cyber operations.

Cyber Security is huge in the military and the private sector right now. Too many seats and not enough bodies to put in them. It appears that anyone interested in Cyber Security can write their own ticket. Keep in mind that the Navy has a minimum 5 year active military service obligation. The Air Force ROTC type 1 scholarships are difficult to receive while the other types don't pay nearly as well. And the Marines focus a lot on physical fitness during college.
 
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To say Cyber Defense is less needed than Cyber Ops is akin to saying a nation doesn't need Patriot missiles because they have air to ground operations... there are two certifications for a reason, and paths that combine both are common.

Norwich has provided security support for 2 Super Bowls and now a contract with NCAA for the BB national championships this year, expanding into other events in the coming five years. A team of students will be on site, while counter operations and support will happen in the war room on campus. The laboratory experience at Norwich is only enhanced by the certifications you earn during class. That's Cyber Ops level programming in real-time using just the foundation of Defense. Hence why I said to not only analyze the list but the schools.

The state of Vermont is going to invest in additional building space and labs for their own state security program in campus. Internships on site is starting to become a thing at major institutions, something else to consider. The more practical the program and less ivory tower, the better.
 
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