Do I need a laptop for a cyber security course in university?

3

I am planning to do a 5 year degree with a foundation year and a placement year but I don't know if I need a laptop I mean I have lots of computer labs in my university but due to the current coronavirus pandemic most of my lectures are taking place online and so it makes sense to me that I need a laptop for online learning but however I still have computers in university so I am really confused and also another problem is that since it is a 5 year course won't I need a laptop that has got a high storage space like 1 TB

Reply 1

LuigiMario

19

OK, some universities do lend out laptops. (lots of the Scottish ones etc) so ask them first that, or ask in the group chat for your university specifically

when I first started working in Cybersecurity (aspects of) I was the only person with a MacBook Pro (16GB RAM 768GB rotary i5 CPU), everyone else had some sort of corporate Dell or a Lenovo T, W, X

when I moved from Cybersecurity to Energy, nearly everyone in the Cybersecurity meetings was using MacBook Pro, (and by then I was then using eBay refurbished recycled Lenovo X220 with 16GB RAM, 2 x 512GB SSDs (one in the WWAN slot and one SATA SSD) - really cheap, consider getting a used 'ex-bank' Lenovo 13" (T430?) or T440, T450, if you go this route - get one with a nice IPS HD+ display , total ~ £300-ish

For the long course: You can easily have a 4 or 6 terabyte external disk to store things on, or better a simple local LAN NAS raid array for storage. (£300-ish)

Whilst working on cybersec, I did a lot of work on virtual machines using hypervisor access to servers with >100GB RAM and almost infinite HDDs,
you can simply log on with SSH from something as simple as a MacBook Air 2020 (the keyboards actually work in the 2020 MBA) and so you might *not* need the most powerful machine going, as you just 'virtually go there'

Reply 2

username5383500

18

Original post

by Basil_1822

I am planning to do a 5 year degree with a foundation year and a placement year but I don't know if I need a laptop I mean I have lots of computer labs in my university but due to the current coronavirus pandemic most of my lectures are taking place online and so it makes sense to me that I need a laptop for online learning but however I still have computers in university so I am really confused and also another problem is that since it is a 5 year course won't I need a laptop that has got a high storage space like 1 TB

Cyber isn't inherently any different to any other degree. Your uni will typically supply computers that you can make use of, but having your own machine is always going to be more convenient. That said, depending on your budget and requirements it may or may not be possible to replace the computers offered by your uni.

Going through my cyber degree, I had both a laptop and a powerful desktop. Both were incredibly useful, meaning I did not need to go into uni and access the specific lab machines. I could work whenever I wanted, and that's primarily why you'd want your own device.

We can't really say whether you'll have access to uni computers. They may be available on a more restricted schedule. They may be totally unavailable. They made be made available for remote access. You'd need to query your uni on that matter. It's worth noting that your requirements are likely to change during your degree though, and the situation you're in now is unlikely to last 5 years.

With regards to things like storage and other specs, it's also difficult to say what you'll need. A point to note on storage, your uni will likely provide some sort of cloud solution you can use, so it won't be absolutely necessary to store everything locally on your laptop (nor is that a good idea). Some courses you may need nothing more than one or two lightweight VMs. Others you may be more demanding. However regardless of what you need for your degree, it's worth considering what you want for your personal development. For cyber in particular I can't stress this enough, you should be doing lots of self led research outside classes. For example maybe you can get by on your degree with a bunch of lightweight Linux VMs, but you want to learn about Windows AD. That's going to require some more powerful hardware. Or maybe you get interested in CTF type challenges, and never need anything more than a basic Kali VM.

You don't absolutely need a laptop, however it would aid your learning significantly. Not only does it become easier to do uni work, but it becomes easier to do your own studying. Of course what you can do depends on what you get, which depends on your budget.

Do I need a laptop for a cyber security course in university?

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