MBA or a Technical Masters Degree for Fraud Information Technology

I'm currently a Fraud Specialist looking to make an eventual transfer to my company's Fraud Information Technology department. My associates degree in Criminal Justice really got my foot in the door and I'm hoping my bachelors degree in Information Technology will get me to Fraud IT. I should be graduating in December.

Anyway, I'm thinking about graduate school and I'm very indecisive on how to proceed. I would like to be in Information Security management so I've questioned doing an MBA perhaps with an IT track. Then again, a technical masters degree might move my career along much smoother. It's really hard to say and I was hoping for some opinions?

Thanks!

 

Wow...FraudGuy86 who is a Fraud Specialist in a Fraud Information Technology department trying to get into Fraud IT..sounds interesting.

Any way...if your long term goal is to move in to management of FRAUD...err...security, you should be looking at MBA degrees. If your goal is to stay in the technical grounds, an MS in Cybersecurity/InformationAssurance might be a better choice

 

You should check out the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) website and see if there is any information on the desired degrees for this career field. I do believe that the career field may be divided by the business/management side and the technical/IT side. My wife teaches a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) exam prep course and she has students in the MBA program as well as IT programs.

 

I'm going to be a bit of a masochist and get an MBA and an MS in IA. It my findings, so far, it has paid me well to know the technical and the managerial side.

 

Just a little more background. Fraud Management and Fraud Information Technology are a bit different. Fraud IT does a lot with the software engineering that Fraud Specialists utilize to stop the Fraud. Where I'm at now is more based in financial crimes than anything. I would be very happy making it to Fraud IT, but I also have my eye on our general Information Security areas as well.

I love the technical aspect of everything but I do like the idea of management. It sounds to me like a toss up as to whether an advanced technical degree or an MBA would benefit me best.