I believe matematics should be emphasized when dabbling in computers and programming. The field of math and how much proficiency would depend on what you want to use the computer for. You can create programs or games without being a math geinious, but computers and math both work according to logic, and you should have an interest in and appreciation for logic in any case.
Some of the guys involved in the developement of the RSA and other cipher algorithms were into number theory, and maybe number theory will provide some of the insight you'll need if you want to become a cipher-breaker, but I don't think you'd need any number theory to understand JPEG algorithms. Punch-line: It's all about getting into the right field of mathematics. I wouldn't know much about any level of proficiency though.
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