About This Text “Education is what remains after you have forgotten everything you learned in school.” - Anonymous This is a book about the foundations of cybersecurity. Foundations are stable, last a long time, and are meant to be built upon. In the fast-paced world of cybersecurity, it is difficult to stay up-to-date. This text aims to avoid becoming out-of-date by identifying and staying focused on the unchanging fundamentals of cybersecurity. Because of its focus on foundations, this book’s emphasis is less on training and more on education (see Table 1). Training focuses on competency. It is concerned with how to do certain tasks. At the end of the day, in order to accomplish work of practical value, you must be competent, and competency comes through training. Without question, training is good and appropriate and has a vital role to play in cybersecurity education. However, training has a limited shelf-life due to its specificity. This book, as an introductory text, will avoid training as much as possible, and instead lay a firm foundation for training to follow. The main focus of this text is on education. Education is abstract and conceptual. It is about learning how to think and how to contextualize the subject matter. While not as immediately practical, education is valuable because it imparts the ability to think critically, to solve problems, and to innovate and adapt. Strong cybersecurity education is important for future-proofing our cyber workforce. When done well, it makes the training that comes afterward more efficient and effective. Because of its emphasis on fundamentals, the latest and greatest technologies are not highlighted, and to the extent possible, specific examples are limited. References that risk becoming out of date are minimized. Even recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) are not addressed in any substantial way. AI is obviously important and is changing the practice of cybersecurity, perhaps tilting the balance of power between cyber defenders and cyber attackers, but even in a future world permeated with AI, the fundamental constructs and challenges of cybersecurity remain the same. AI will enhance both cyber defense and offense. It will change how the topics covered in this book are implemented. But only in a world where AI runs everything and people are free to pursue a full-time life of leisure will the study of cybersecurity as embodied in this text become irrelevant. In the meantime, learning the basic constructs and philosophy of cybersecurity is the best foundation for innovating new technology, learning cutting edge skills, and applying AI to solve problems.
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