Career track: Cyber Defense?

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Thought I'd toss this in here and see if anyone else is familiar with this career path.

I've decided to try the college thing and retrain. This college has multiple campuses and once of them has a Cyber Defense team. They actually compete with other college where different teams in a lab try to hack each other and bust up each other's computers.

I've been giving it a lot of thought and decided to aim my academic path in this direction. I was just in a certificate program and changed it to Cyber Security Associates Degree. There is a possibility to expand it even more to Cyber Defense Batchelors.

I'm hoping that in addition to the degree my participation in the team will look good. I want to invest time in learning that stuff and hope we can smash the other college team.

From what I can tell it seems like this should really be in demand but was curious if anyone had experience or feedback on it.

First, I have no expertise in this. However, I am always reading about computers and computer networks being hacked. This is a real problem in all arenas. Hackers go after home systems just to wreck the systems, or to hyjack them for the hackers use, or to access the home users info. They also go after corporate systems to wreck them, hold them hostage, for the hackers own use, and to steal info. Then, they have also gone after utility systems to disrupt community infrastructures, or steal info. And lets not forget the government systems that have been hacked. Those are targeted to wreck the system, to steal info, or to hijack the systems. So defending against hackers is an important and growing job market. There are not enough defenders out there, and there are more computer systems going online every day, so more defenders are definitely needed. Remember, computer tech is an expanding field, with destop units, laptops/net books, tablet PCs, GPS units, Palm and Blackberries, smart phones, and more. There are a number of different operating systems, and by now, many thousands of apps out there. All of these need to be defended against hacking. There is also the sub field of defence, where people learn how to hack into enemy systems, to help our side.

If you have what it takes to do this work, and an interest in it, this is definitely a good career choice. People who do this work have my thanks and appreciation. I hate criminal hackers and malware creeps.

first off, what you're describing is cracking not hacking... read the jargon file people.

Cyber defense is per se not an official education, meaning, you may or may not be able to use it later in life, most crackers, as with proper hackers have a more generalized IT based education, such as computer science and engineering, while a fraction of both groups are self-taught.

I'd see if I could get a pamphlet, well, any information at all regarding the course before you try to get in. Does the course offer thorough education on network design, hardware, software and programming?
If not, it's probably BS, especially if it lacks the programming part, then you'd be nothing more than a script kiddie with a paper.

What you most probably will be doing in a cyber security job, will be penetration testing for various corporations.

Get as much information on the education as you can, it might be a hunk of BS like many of the video game based educations in the US that in reality just might not get you anywhere

I don't have the program in front of me but at a glance it looks heavy into network education and Linux stuff.

The college likes to stress that their students come out ahead with a stronger grasp of network knowledge. They also say because of this they do very well in Cyber Defense team competitions and have 2

I may also be a mix of formal and informal. I'll get my class education but learn what I can from the Cyber Defense competition team and see how well we do against other college teams.

Later sometime I can post more info on the program.