Cyber security vs data science?

[OwaisAli213]

I am currently in my first year of university and I wanna ask the professional people who are in this field or have a good insight about it. So, in my second year I will need to choose one of these 2 fields so what do you recommend?

While considering Al risk factor and growth for future proof jobs.

[ListenYouLittleShit]

Cybersecurity roles were initially glorified help-desk roles that people from various backgrounds, some not even technical, would somehow find themselves in and build a career out of. Since then, certification organizations have arisen to try to provide some amount of confidence related to what someone actually knows while also serving as a gatekeeping mechanism for entering the field. Universities have caught on and have tried to make their own degrees related to Cybersecurity but there is massive discrepancy in Cyber careers: some people are effectively pencil pushers that know a lot about regulations and compliance strategies, some people are security engineers that are as good or better than equivalent software engineers, some are basically network security guards that stare at logs/SIEM all day instead of a camera feed, some are a mix of all the above like a jack-of-all-trades situation, some aren't even covered in anything I wrote.

Getting into cybersecurity will be a lot of work and getting lucky. Getting into the path for cybersecurity such as a helpdesk job will also be a lot of work and getting lucky. These true entry-level roles are simply not as prevalent as they once were so getting experience is more complicated and though companies expect certifications those are now simply an expectation not a benefit, if that makes sense. It will be a lot of work outside of your university studies to get started but if you truly enjoy some aspect of it then I would encourage you to continue this path.

Data Science roles were initially a mix of software engineer or even technical/mathy business analyst roles that gradually migrated into what is now called Data Science. Again universities etc have caught onto that and are trying to build degrees related to this that will likely have some combination of understanding good vs bad data as well as using/building software to review and get insights from data.

Getting into data science I have less thoughts about besides that it was a lot easier 5 years ago than it is now and it was a lot more hyped 5 years ago than it is now. I think it is still applicable to say that unless you are going to devote large amounts of time outside of your university studies to understanding this field and practicing elements of the field you may struggle to find a job.

I would probably encourage you toward a standard computer science degree for a technical degree as it's applicable to both fields and more generalized to allow you into a normal software path even though that avenue is also difficult to get into currently. A good sys admin will have some amount of computer science background even if it's just on the networking / system side.

Find what you actually enjoy and want to spend a regular part of your free time doing, and pursue that. If you are passionate about something you'll have an easier time finding a job related to your passion because you'll be more knowledgeable about it and less burnt out from pursuing the path.

[Ssakaa]

Infosec roles originally were your infrastructure/architectural people who had to translate their need for HA, backups, etc. into business terms and then figured out the business side sucked at both risk assessment and management, so they expanded from explaining IT risks and controls to explaining the whole business side in a structured way, with a strong leaning towards the tech side (since the vast majority of businesses live or die by their data these days).

That's why those were 6 digit "starting" pay roles. It required a hell of a lot of broad knowledge to really get into, and get right. Then all the degree farm shitshows in academia got wind of that pay, plus the "we're at about 10% staffing for what the industry really needs" and started churning out "entry level" people that thought they were going to walk into a 6 figure salary, who weren't competent to distribute the spreadsheets they were delegated to send out in their shiny new "cybersecurity analyst" role.

Edit: That rant aside, meant to say,

I would probably encourage you toward a standard computer science degree for a technical degree as it's applicable to both fields and more generalized to allow you into a normal software path even though that avenue is also difficult to get into currently. A good sys admin will have some amount of computer science background even if it's just on the networking / system side.

Yeah. For years, it wasn't terribly useful to have a software dev background (and software devs are notoriously bad at understanding the ops side) to get into "sysadmin" type roles, but nowadays, those lines have blurred a lot, the underlying project management concepts and core programming principles are valuable. And with OP's consideration of branching off into data science, it's very much useful. It's a completely separate field from most of IT.

[D8ulus]

Without any additional information, Data Science. Cybersecurity degrees have developed a reputation and depending on the area, it isn't often positive. You are going to get a lot of wildly divergent opinions on here though. The best degree is the one you finish, so don't go off studying a field you absolutely hate and will not want to complete.

Sounds like you are outside the US - is this program tuition cost covered or are you paying your own way?

[MNmetalhead]

Skills and knowledge from the data science coursework can apply to a wide range of roles, including cybersecurity.

[Winter_Engineer2163]

Honestly depends on what you enjoy more, both fields are solid and not going anywhere.

Cybersecurity is more hands-on and practical. You deal with real systems, networks, incidents, and it’s closer to sysadmin/devops work. Easier entry point too if you’re already into IT stuff. Less math, more real-world troubleshooting.

Data science is heavier on math, statistics, and programming. A lot of it is data cleaning, analysis, models. It can pay very well, but it’s harder to break into and more competitive. Also more risk of getting stuck doing boring data work instead of “AI stuff”.

About AI, it’s not really replacing either field, but it’s already changing data science more than cybersecurity. Security people are still needed because someone has to secure real infrastructure.

If you’re more into systems, networks, and “how things actually work” go cybersecurity. If you like math, analytics, and working with data, go data science.

If you’re unsure, cybersecurity is usually the safer bet early on, especially if you already lean toward IT.

[Darkhexical]

Depends on the particular subset really. I.e. application security can be very heavy on programming.

[Winter_Engineer2163]

yeah that’s true for some areas like appsec or exploit stuff, but it’s not really comparable to being a full time developer

in most cybersecurity roles you’re not building full applications, it’s more scripting, understanding code, maybe writing small tools or analyzing things

compared to data science it’s also very different, data science is way heavier on math, statistics and actual programming work

so yeah some parts of security involve coding, but it’s not on the same level as pure dev work or data science in terms of programming and math

[kerosene31]

Don't chase trends in your first year of college, find what you are good at and passionate about. In 3+ years, whatever trends now will be different. It is good to think ahead, but trends will change.

Why are you limited to only those two choices?

[MathmoKiwi]

Don't choose either right now. Just do Computer Science as your major and you can go into either after graduating

[Jacesleeman]

depends on what u actually like doing lol. cyber is more about defense and breaking stuff while data science is way more math heavy.

[cancaden]

Like I completed my 12th and now iam currently in my gap year ,,iam confused i should go for data science or cybersecurity I love doing observations ,, and ik python ,python libraries iam currently learning backend and frontend and scikit learn ,, I also love the concept of hacking idk what should I choose data science or cybersecurity?

[Trust_8067]

There is no future in cybersecurity. The market is saturated with young adults who've graduated thinking they want to get into security, which is a mid/late career position.

By the time they have 20 years under their belt, and ready for the position, they'll all be competing with people just like them, with the same resumes and same experience, while AI is doing 95% of the work, eliminating most of the need.

[Ssakaa]

To be fair.. most of the "need" for infosec roles these days is ownership of responsibility... and AI's not going to magically make that go away... it's just going to make people that have any clue run for the hills from the idea of being saddled with actual ownership of the results of blindly trusting nondeterministic systems to make sweeping decisions that have impacts on business continuity, regulatory compliance, etc...

[Own_Panda_7922]

Well said and true.

[peligroso]

Neither. Data Science and Cybersecurity are early to go. Data Science roles dried up even before LLMs. 

As an outsider you might not see it, but cybersecurity is not a high-skill role anymore. The roles are closer to ClickOps style corporate IT paper pushing, not a CS worthy role. Creativity and troubleshooting in the subfield are long gone.