Ask A Spook! Cryptologic Questions

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by USNAVYCASTRO

Hey CTT1 I posted this in another thread. But I'll post here cause I don't think anyone noticed :p
regarding the security clearances for CTI/CTT/CTN my mother and older sister are not US Citizens, they are residents. I know they are planning on taking the citizenship test, so should I wait to join aCT rating until they are citizens? Is it possible to join a different rate and then when they become citizens swap to a CT rating?

Castro,
As long as YOU are a citizen, that's what counts. Your family being residents is going to be a crap ton of paperwork no matter when they become citizens (since they were born in another country). Just be upfront on your paperwork and get everything the investigator will need and you should be fine.

Originally Posted by Maverick07

Just finished reading this thread and gathered a lot of valuable information. Excited to be a future CTN, but I have 5 months til I ship. I have years of experience using Windows and Microsoft Office programs, but none in programming or networking. Any CTN's have a networking tutorial book that they would recommend? Would like to build a foundation to give me a leg up when I get to A school, because programming and networking is going to be challenging. Thanks for any advice. I appreciate it.

I'll touch base on the 2 big things you mentioned:
Networking: Study material as if you were going to take your CCNA. That cert is going to cover a TON of what you're going to pick up in the cyber realm. Having at least a working understanding of the concepts in CCNA will make life a lot easier. If I had to pick the most important thing though, I would say LEARN TO SUBNET. You should be able to subnet using only a pen and paper and be able to tell me Network Address, Gateway, First Usable address, Broadcast Address, and what the next network address after that would be. If you can do that before A-school, you're going to have a significantly easier time there.

Programming: Don't stress too much on this one. If you want to be a programmer then there might be some opportunities at whatever site you land at. But they aren't going to start drilling you on Perl scripts or anything in A-school haha So don't stress about knowing how to code.

Let me know if you have more questions! I'm currently part of the cyber world myself, so I have a very close relationship with CTNs.

/r
CTT1