What I did with my afternoon

I found myself teaching #1 Son computer security this rainy afternoon.  A bit unexpected, that.  It came from a conversation we had when I got back from my last business trip.  I don't much like traveling anymore - not only do I remember when traveling was a lot more glamorous that the TSA makes it these days, but I've spent far too much time away from the home and family.  #1 Son, however, is a bit enamored of the whole bit of business travel.

And so we talked about how you land yourself a consulting gig.  Basically, it boils down to whether you have mad skillz that are in demand; if you do, then the money is good as long as you don't mind being on the road.  And I mentioned that people are having trouble getting Internet Security guys.  His ears pricked up.

And so I found myself going through the CyberPatriot learning materials, which are a pretty good place to start.  Add in some hands on with VMWare images, a little metasploit and wireshark, and you have the core of what someone would need to know.  Next drill down may be Cisco CNE or Microsoft certification.

What's interesting is that he's all of a sudden gotten the idea (a year and a half into College) that having skills that are in demand would be A Good Thing for him personally.  What's also interesting is to have him listening attentively as I taught him the basics.  I guess his Old Man learned kind of a lot in the last five years ...