I’ve been told if you want to do cybersecurity or other form of network security, you major in computer science and NOT cybersecurity. Is this true?
That’s not true. Cybersecurity is a specialized field that’s normally based on the business Information Technology side of computers. If you want to do cybersecurity, it really does help to major in it. Most are corporate jobs and it helps to have a strong business background.
Cybersecurity is a relatively new undergrad major offered at few schools. Those schools that have it, kids are heavily recruited in the field. My son is a traditional cs major at a school without cybersec major, and at the campus recruiting fair he was offered to interview at a cybersec firm, and got an internship offer. Just make sure in CS you make some effort to learn about operating systems and networking. These are not something you are forced to learn well in CS, but can learn well.
It depends on what you want to do in the security field.
If you want to take apart malware one byte at a time, a CS degree would be very useful. When botnets just got started 10+ years ago, a PHd student gave a presentation to all the local IT managers that have computer security as part of our jobs. He spent months taking apart the code and was able to highlight exactly what was happening.
The man (Adnan Baykal) is brilliant. Here is a recent interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ONWxz8bYQ
If you are looking at the policy side, any degree is fine, but you need many years of experience to get there.
Regardless of what your eventual goals are, get involved with the student ACM chapter and/or the cybersecurity student group. If there is no cybersecurity group, start one and throw yourself into the field. Everything is out there to learn on your own.
My suggestion to someone today would be a degree in Cyber Secuity and a Minor in CS or the other way around if you want to be more technical.