Total newbie needs some help

[dbernie41]

I am totally new to the computer security scene. I already know some programming and have made some web pages and things like that. I know computer hardware so now Im trying to learn about security. Basically if anyone has any tips on good places to start my learning just let me know.

Also, what is your favorite port scanner?

[embro1001]

Originally posted here by dbernie41
I am totally new to the computer security scene. I already know some programming and have made some web pages and things like that. I know computer hardware so now Im trying to learn about security. Basically if anyone has any tips on good places to start my learning just let me know.

Also, what is your favorite port scanner?

You wanna learn? Read up. There's a plethora of info on this site. (HINT: plethora = a whole shyzer-load). Just post intelligent questions, and give us good reason to answer them.

And my favorite port scanner is nmap sans-GUI. For Windows, I recommend SuperScan. You can find a lot of kazaa supernodes with that dude (I'm sure you can with nmap, too, but SuperScan connects and does a printout of the output from the service on the port, giving you a username and email without having to connect...nothing more fun than scaring a kazaa user shyzer-less - I prefer the Secret Service Email spoof myself...).

[aze]

The best thing to do as your getting into the security world is to read, then read some more. Try to soak up as much knowledge as is humanly possible. Pick a topic that you want to learn first like possibly TCP/IP protocols or implementing IDS then pick up some books, Google for tutorials, Check out the Antionline Tutorial Index</a>, and of course ask us if you need help. After you learn a great deal you then may choose to set up a small network within your home for a personal war-game. Practice securing services on older and newer boxes.

As for port scanners my favorite would probably be nmap for the sheer amount of control it gives.

Welcome to AO and the security World
AzE

Don’t forget to read the antionline newbie tuts
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=251402
Antionline Tut Index
http://www.neg.be/index/

EDIT-seems I need to learn to type faster so I'm not always beat to the punch

[embro1001]

aze - I love your sig. Where did you get it? Or did you make it?

[johnnymier]

Hi:
Security is such a broad subject from networks, viruses, cryptography, etc. Pick a topic.
My fave will have to be network security, try to learn some network porgramming in C to get a basic understanding of protocols which will help a lot a good resource to get started is: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/guide/net/
Setup a home network, that helped me a lot, even if its small. Learn as much as you can about Unix.

cheers
J

[djscribble]

The Three webpages that i would suggest would be

The SANS Institute
http://www.sans.org

SecurityFocus
http://www.securityfocus.com

PacketStorm
http://www.packetstormsecurity.nl

With SANS, they always have a great "top 20 list" and how to get rid of these "top 20" vunerabilities, and their FAQ has probably the easiest to understand explinations of different aspects of security that i have ever read.

at SecurityFocus has many up to date news articles and also a very up to date list of vunerabilities and tools... furthermore, at SecurityFocus, you can look up and download different hacker tools without worrying about being hacked while you are browsing their web pages. I know i am not saying everything about this site, but that is because there is just so much there. i guess one final thought on this site is that it covers most operating systems. it has easy to navigate tabs at the top which is divided into microsoft and unix (Mac and Linux is grouped in with unix)

finally, Packet Storm is the place where i always go to find out about security vunerabilities and get the latest "security" tools . I use this site mostly for my home network penetration testing. I know this may be "overkill" but i do it at home this way if i trash my home network, i am not trashing the network of my work -- that, and it makes my life easier at work .

I hope this helps...

o yeah, i use Angry IP Scanner and NMapwin for my port scanning -- i use Angry primarily because not only do i get ports for one computer, but i can specify a range of IP's to scan, and also get username, Hostname and Computer name, MAC address, TTL, ping, and Group name :-D

[hobbdebub]

Welcome to AO! I am new here myself and I have found the members here are extremely patient and willing to help you with anything related to security. If you are wantting some tutorial I would suggest checking out the tutoorials forum for security and nonsecurity related tuts. Here is a link to Neg's big list:

http://www.neg.be/index/

Some other sites I have found interesting have been:

http://slashdot.org/
http://www.alw.nih.gov/Security/security.html
http://www.cert.org/

If you are interested you may also want to try using a *nix based operating system. It will take the knowledge you already know about hardware and push it through the roof when configuring the system, it also has all the programming resources you will need.

Well I hope you have fun here and I hope you learn alot. Welcome to AO!