The young buck's guide to learning.
The following post is an attempt at helping those new to security get information quickly and with ease. Here goes.
Ok, Im guessing since you are reading this that you are a member of a board or forum, these places hold a wealth of information in its users. Post relevent questions and you will get answers easily.
This is a great place to begin and there are great forums [in fact hundreds] of forums security or hacker related these days.
Im not going to plug them here as its not nice to those who make this board what it is.
Next after youre basic hunger has been fulfilled you will desire extra information, the obvious way of getting valid info is a good search engine.
www.google.com
www.alltheweb.com
or you could get a program to this for you, I recommend Copernic 2001 Pro, you could buy it but for those without morals its available at nearly every warez site.
Warez is pirated software, it is illegal and whether you wish to use it is your choice but be careful warez sites are full of pop-up ads, misleading links and possibly trojans so be extra careful.
www.warez.com provides a search engine for programs, just type in Copernic 2001 Pro.
I do support warez by the way, due to the hard work and effort put in by developers.
The next step is getting in contact with helpful users in which you can learn from, maybe forum members you get along with, people on ICQ or any friends or relatives you know with good computer skills. A great way of learning is on a one to one basis unless you feel you work better alone.
IRC is a great place to meet people on learn, unfamiliar users will be shocked by its old fashioned ways at your firewall going crazy but once you learn those commands you will learn so much.
Go to www.mirc.com and take it from there.
Programming can amazingly improve your computer skills [obviously] so I recommend buying a good book on the language you hope to approach first [ most go for C/C++ or Basic] however pick the language the suits you even if its Python, Pascal or Assembly.
Books are great for learning, I am currently surrounded by many computer books, go to your local shop and take a look around your bound to find something.
Learn HTML its easy and webpages wont look so fancy anymore, try follow this up by Javascroipt which is more of a challenge.
READ, I can not stress this enough, read tutorials/how to's etc. until your eyes bleed. There is a good archive here at antilonline so check it out or try these links.
www.cyruslabs.com/tutorials.html/
www.lameindustries.org/tutorials/index.shtml/
These sites provide tutorials from newbie up to advanced level so check them out.
Getiing Linux installed can be a daunting task for any newbie. Dont rush into Linux simply to look good, if you do not feel comfortable with change stick with Windows.
Get help the first time you install Linux, or perhaps partition your hardrive so you can keep Windows and still learn what all those guys on IRC were talking about.
Get a firewall at www.zonelabs.com or www.networkice.com these will help secure your box against possible attacks.
Learn how to be anonymous on the web, read up on proxies Ill post a tutorial soon.
Do not get involved in illegal activities to look "l337", this includes defacement, virus writing, trojan use and DoS. Imagine ending up in prison or fined $1000 because you scribbled
"1 0\/\/¬ j00 suX0r5!" or whatever crap they write. It aint worth it and you will impress nobody important just other script kiddies.
Oh, and if you are into handles dont pick one from the film "Hackers", I have seen so many 'Zero-Cool's and 'Acid Burn' handles to make me sick.
Ok so you get the idea, this is all basic idealisms, Im not trying t impress anyone here Im just bored and maybe this could help out some people. So remember you can be a malicious script kiddie, an ethical hacker or just a guru its up to you.
Good luck in your travels, I hope this helped somebody.
Ennis.
