What does it take to work in computer security? Beyond the basic math, science, and analytical skills, "you need tremendous patience and persistence--and you need to not have to sleep much," says Chet Hosmer, cofounder and chief executive officer of Wetstone . . .
What does it take to work in computer security? Beyond the basic math, science, and analytical skills, "you need tremendous patience and persistence--and you need to not have to sleep much," says Chet Hosmer, cofounder and chief executive officer of Wetstone Technologies Inc. (Cortland, N.Y.), a company that specializes in computer security and digital forensics. "Some of our best inventions have come at 3 in the morning, when we're trying to recover a client's computer system or defend it from attack." Unlike other types of engineering, he says, "innovation occurs over days or hours, instead of years. You have to be able to invent on the fly."

As our reliance on computers has grown, Hosmer notes, so has our vulnerability to cyberattack. "Virtually every critical infrastructure system in this country, whether it be transportation, power, communications, or finance, operates in cyberspace," he says, making the demand for computer security specialists even greater. "I would cautiously say the field is exploding. It's a huge problem, and there are so few people trained in the science, or rather the art, of doing this."

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