Take a look at the Department of Informatics at Fort Hays State University - you can take all of the courses (at both undergrad and graduate level) online to complete a degree. It is not one of those curriculum sets you can just ace - it is a challenging set of courses which encompass internetworking, web development, media studies, and information assurance. You can pick your specific concentration, but you will still get to see a little bit of everything. This is one of the best programs in the country for updated networking and web curriculum. It is both a Cisco Networking Academy and an NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance. You can work toward you CCNA/CCNP/CISSP if that is the direction you'd like to take, or you can work toward an advanced degree in web development. I know these classes are quality because I have taken them - the internetworking series of classes were the most difficult classes I have ever taken. I loved the challenge and the connections you gain with classmates from around the world are invaluable. http://www.fhsu.edu/informatics/ Thanks for posting and good luck!

I think you forget that the government just declassified portions of COMINT and SIGINT documents dating back to 1933. These documents were the precursor to the NSA run by the US Army Signal Corps. In the case of cryptographic information, 25 years is an awfully short period. I found many of the documents that were declassified from '33 to contain tons of extremely interesting and historically valuable information.

Oh, we were quite serious. And look for a picture of us handing them a $100 check coming on the site in the next week or so. Enough is sometimes enough, especially when these people abuse our staff.

Whatever you do, do not accept stock options. Take the cold hard cash - it has real value. I've seen too many small startups get screwed when their genius product was bought out and then the company that bought it went under. Suddenly, they sold the rights to their product for... nothing. Take cash. Upfront.

As an 18 year old, I can recommend the Jedi Apprentice series by Jude Watson. They are absolutely fantastic books to start with and can really get thought patterns down. Once they are comfortable reading that, and if they enjoy it, move them into Mathew Stover's writing. It is absolutely dark and political, but it is also amazing at getting someone to understand themselves and controlling their emotions. Although it is fiction, Stover really gets down to the fundamental level of human nature, and they will be valuable lessons to know growing up.