suggestions needed

Dear friends,
I'm a novice in programming interested in getting into systems security and [programming.I have a good deal of Knowledge in GUI programming(i.e VB).I'm an MBA,doing systems auditing certification currently.I'm in ambivalence because of two options i have as my specialisation for my career enhancement.One is i can get into network security and the other is application security(may be with some OS knowledge).Please suggest me what can i do and also the language you recommend.Recommend products for both longterm and short term.for example leaning C,within months and expecting more from it is not wise(am i right? like wise tell me the appropriate s/w i should read both in short term and long term).

I have a notion that we have lot of people into hacking esp. with network hacking.I want to get into an area where we don't have more people.Guide me.

chokks.

I see you have visual basic experience? if you know one programming language it shouldn't be too hard to start working with another one, like Delphi, some gui programmers tend to find C a bit too cryptic in the beginning.

Firstly, learn to post your request in the correct forum, this should really be under Newbie Questions. Then learn how to put spaces between sentences so that we can read what you have written.

As for your question, if you want to get into application programming and/or security, you will *have* to learn C or C++ at some time or another because languages such as VB don't usually give you the power you need to interact properly with hardware. Also, VB isn't really portable beyond Windows systems, yet many networks are built on *nix servers (even if they have Windows workstations).

For network security it would still be advisable to learn C/C++ as well as the TCP/IP protocol.

We do not have a lot of people in hacking, sure there are hundreds if not thousands of lame newbies out there who know how to execute a pre-compiled DDoS script, but most of the true hackers work on projects like the FSF.

:) I'm sorry for posting my doubt in the wrong column.Even though i have given enough space i don't know why there was such a congestion.I will correct myself in the days to come.Thanks for your suggestion.

Chokks.