I think you've misinterpreted me. The problem is not that security work isn't interesting. The problem is that the sorts of security-related things a teacher/parent is most likely to point their children to (most likely the school's IT staff or some ridiculous certification exam) aren't interesting.

Basically, my advice is to scrap what the article suggests and instead prefer "intellectually stimulating" to "related to security" when diverting a bright child's interests. It's often easy to find something sufficiently intellectually stimulating if you don't focus on security. Also, something related to security isn't necessarily at all intellectually stimulating (again, please don't flip my quantifier...).

> I object to your dismissal of my industry as "configuring firewalls and installing AV".

This wasn't my intention. FTR I respect security professionals and IT folk of all stripes.

But there are boring jobs in every indsutry.

My observation is only that diverting a student to the nearest person whose job has anything to do with "cyber security" is not likely to end with that student showing up at a security research lab. Similarly, I think it's a laughably bad idea to try to get a kid who is already checking out of school to prep for something like a CREST certification exam.

> Certainly the security industry is not for everyone

This was more my other point.

I doubt that most students who are interested in computers and who are also acting out using computers are necessarily interested in computer security. I think that assuming this fundamentally misunderstands/conflates two very different things going on in the student's life -- their interest in computers/science/technology, and anti-social behavior.

> A lot of people in the security industry would not even consider "configuring firewalls and installing AV" to be security work

Unfortunately most of the teachers/parents reading that webpage are unlikely to know the difference.