1. The Exploration of Computer
When I was a child, I would think about the principle of TV, why the iron box was so designed, and why it presented wonderful content from a far away place. But I know I can’t really figure out how a TV works. First of all, it’s complicated, and it consumes a lot of my time and energy. Secondly, there are too many technologies developed by predecessors in the world. There are too many things in my life that I think are very magical. I can’t understand them one by one. However, if I have something I don’t want to understand, I feel like a tumor in my brain, which is a pity.
When I started to contact with programming in high school, I didn’t have much interest in programming at that time, but the magic of computer obviously attracted me more than TV. However, even if I entered the university to study a computer related major, I almost did not have much in-depth understanding of computer. What I am most curious about is the system level of the computer. But I didn’t think I have the time and the ability at that time.
When I study as a master student, contacting with information security, I feel that this subject can let me more comprehensive, more in-depth understanding of computer. Because information security can be said, from the whole computer, every level of the Internet, will involve security. Therefore, if you want to learn information security well, you need to be involved in all aspects of the computer. Of course, you need to have your own in-depth research on individual aspects, such as network security, system security, hardware security, etc., in order to become an expert.
I do the same thing now. First, I’ll cover a wide range of security topics, and then I’ll pick a few points of interest for in-depth study. In this process, I feel the constant in-depth understanding of the computer, there is a feeling of digging open the shell of a mystery step by step. I feel the great pleasure.
2. More Experience, Higher Personal Value
About the choice of career. My parents and I both believe that we must have a long-term vision. If you can work for a long time, constantly hone your ability, use experience to make your irreplaceable career is the best choice. Of course, the salary is also a very important factor. In addition, security engineers are like doctors in the computer field. The threshold is very high (unfriendly to novices), and there are many professional certificates with gold content. If someone has very high securiyy skills, they will be paid by some companies, so they can do temporary maintenance or penetration.
Therefore, our family is optimistic about the long-term career planning of being an information security engineer.
3. Challenging and Attractive High Intensity and High Level Competition(CTF)
CTF is started from DEFCON global hacker conference in 1996. It is a intensive competition among security technicians. Generally, there are web penetration, binary vulnerability exploitation, reverse engineering, cryptography, forensics, network security and security programming problems. As of August 2020, I have participated in two CTF competitions, one is held by UT Austin University and the other is held by CMU, both of which are high-level CTF held by famous American universities. Although my level is far from enough to solve many CTF problems, in the process of participating in the competition, I saw a lot of computer talents, and saw a lot of fantastic questions and problem-solving methods. I also met very reliable teammates. We stayed up late to fight. I enjoyed it. The pleasure of being fully involved and meeting the challenge attracted me to join the information security industry. I also hope that I will become a qualified CTFer sooner or later, and I hope to have the opportunity to compete with the world’s top players.
4. It’s really interesting
Infosec is very interesting. Although I still don’t understand a lot of it, I have the initiative to study it. I can feel that my desire for other aspects has been reduced a little.
Fortunately, I also have a lot of gradually understand. In fact, I don’t know why. I just read it repeatedly and think about it repeatedly. Suddenly, I feel that the level of my understanding is different.
5. Help human beings enter the intelligent society of the next class
The concept of the Internet of things has been “is coming” for a long time. But I believe that if human beings want to step into a new stage of society, it should be like the idea of a lot of science fiction movies or future movies. Life is full of intelligent devices, and human life is more intelligent and automatic. What is needed most is the development and popularization of the Internet of things.
The Internet of things is a big topic that needs to be developed in many aspects before it can be really popularized.
From the development point of view, we need the popularization of 5G technology, the continuous improvement of networking mode, the development of embedded development and so on, too many.
From the perspective of commercialization and popularization, the compatibility between different IOT devices is too poor. For each kind of IOT equipment, it needs different chips and different software and hardware development. I hope that there will be more and more available modules for the development of the Internet of things in the future, so that developers only need to splice these modules together like building blocks according to the development objectives. In addition, the power supply of IOT equipment is also a very difficult topic.
From the perspective of security, the instability of wireless network, the lack of security resources of a single device in the Internet of things, and the physical level security problems that are difficult to prevent are all very important security research issues. If the security of the Internet of things is not guaranteed, it is not only the problem of user data and user assets being infringed, which will rise to the height of life safety. It is very serious.
I have also noticed that the number of Internet of things related jobs in many companies is gradually increasing. I believe it is only a matter of time.
I hope that through my continuous improvement in the field of information security, after many years, I will contribute myself to the intelligent human society development. Once the Internet of things develops, it must be subversive. This should be an industrial revolution.
