How realistic is it to learn from scratch to be an information security officer?

Question

Information Security

This is my first question on Habré, I don't know how best to write it, so I'll just write as I think. I am 22 years old, by education I am a humanitarian, a lawyer. Despite this, from childhood I was interested in the topic of "hacking". I think to some extent I was also influenced by pop culture, series, films, but even before them I always liked ciphers, hacks and everything related to something that needs to be "unraveled", at the university my favorite subject was "Law in in the field of cloud technologies" or as it was called in another way "Cyberlaw". To some extent, it resonated with my interest in technology. Recently, I realized that I want to change my education and direction in life, so, like many others, I decided to look for my own direction in IT. I understand programming at a basic level, to some extent I understand how it works and what it provides, at the same time I am fully aware of the fact that I do not know the intricacies of certain areas at all, which is why I am now turning to everyone who can help me with an answer. My friend, already a fully established programmer working in the field of information security, having learned about my interest in "entering IT" advised me to study testing and become a QA engineer. I read about this profession - at my philistine level, it seems interesting to me, but still information security seems to be more interesting to me. At the same time, I assume that I will learn to be a QA engineer much faster than IS, but I would like to read the opinions of other people. Is it possible to become a security guard from scratch? what is required for this and how best to learn, if it even makes sense? Or is it better not to meddle there without specialized education, since this is a rather complicated area?

Answer 1

Everything in life is achievable.
In the 21st century, and especially in IT, you can learn everything on your own.
All famous hackers got their knowledge on their own, and not on some courses.
However, they did not ask outsiders if they should do it or if it would be difficult to do it. They just did what they liked.
Nobody is stopping you from doing what you love.
The main thing here is motivation and purposefulness.
Nobody bothers you to sit down at the table, and instead of the first letter to Habr, open Google, collect free programming courses, and start mastering it at a non-basic level.
Now is not the 19th century, when you have to work from 6 am to 10 pm just to feed yourself. People have a carload of free time. Nobody forbids using it to study any specialty.
Similar letters on Habré are published about once a week.
And the very fact of its publication raises reasonable doubts about the success of this enterprise, specifically in the context of information security, for two reasons:
1. An information security specialist must be able to work with information. Find it where it doesn't exist at all. By some indirect grains to restore the course of events. Not to mention simply picking up from the floor that huge amount of information that is openly on the Internet on a topic of interest. In particular, on the question "Can I get in, and if so, how?"
2. An information security specialist who deals not with pieces of paper (as is most often the case in reality), but with “ciphers, hacks and everything connected”, must have inhuman perseverance and the ability to concentrate. Approach any issue thoroughly, and do not stop until it is fully worked out.
And the reasoning lying on the couch, "how good it would be if you suddenly lead an underground passage from the house or build a stone bridge across the pond, on which there would be shops on both sides" does not become information security specialists.
Here is a monologue of a real hacker, https://habr.com/ru/post/27055/
Compare it with your "Do I want? .. Can I? .. "

Answer 2

How realistic is it to learn from scratch to be an information security officer?

Of course, this is not realistic, you must definitely be bitten by an already trained information security officer
... but on the other hand, where did the very first one come from then?

Answer 3

Is it possible to become a security guard from scratch?

Yes. The security guards, who are now trampling on the offices of world banks, also started from scratch, but many, by IT standards, years ago.

Answer 4

If you have the desire and desire to overcome difficulties yourself, then everything is achievable.
If you need to constantly push and somehow motivate, then this is impossible.