Good Morning,

I have a BS in professional studies which is basically a degree encompassing various courses coupled with professional experience. I am extremely interested in the field of cyber security. My current line of work, in which I hold an executive position, as well as my degree, have nothing to do with cyber security. My question is:

Should i enroll in an associates course in cyber security in preparation for a graduate degree in this field? Or, do I need to get a second BS?

Thank you in advance.

Go straight for a MSc.

I'm not a computer scientist but I imagine cyber security would involve a fairly programming/algorithm heavy component. Therefore unless you have some background in maths/engineering/computer science from your BSc, you may struggle.

I would contact the course organisers of each MSc you're interested in and ask them whether your current background is appropriate, and for recommendations of what you might want to consider doing as prep. A full BSc may be unnecessary, but they may be able to point you in the direction of appropriate foundation courses.

Thanks for the replies. I've been out of school for 15 years and math was never my strongest subject. There's no way I could pull off going straight into an MS program right now. I'm wondering if an associates degree would prime me up to be able to succeed in the MS program (and also increase my chances of getting accepted)

What is your goal? To move into security or are you simply interested personally?

I work in IT so have a fair amount of experience with security and what are the requirements.

Hey, so in addition to my full time career I and am starting a security consulting firm. I will handle all aspects of the business but, as it stands now, will have to contract out the cyber/network security portion. This appears to be what clients are most interested in so I thought it would be a good idea to learn it myself. I have 9 years left before I retire and my security consulting firm becomes my full time career. Hopefully by then I will be on solid ground with the cyber security component. I was never a math ace and haven't looked at it since college (12 years ago) but I'm older, wiser and more determined now.

This is going to be unpopular advice on a post grad forum but I would say a degree in cyber security will not help you with your own company as your study will be too focused. I engage vendors regularly and have no idea on their academic background.
Get some indepth experience and understand the field you are in and what companies are looking for when approaching a vendor (current threats, ability to pen test, ethical testing, automation, security hardening, vulnerability notification etc).
Then if you wish to raise your profile within the industry publish white papers through your company, this could be the result of post grad research but does not have to be.

Thanks again for the sound advice. The thing is, my professional career in law enforcement has prepared me for my private endeavor in every way except on the cyber end. I can give a client a full threat assessment but need to pay someone to do the cyber component. i know it is no small undertaking, but I feel like I should jump in and try and learn as much of the cyber angle as i can.