i need some structure

hello everybody..I am relatively new to the security scene and i see that there is a wealth of information out there. In fact there is too much. There is so much information that i dont know where to begin to learn about it. I started by learning linux fairly well, but whats next? I know i can always take a course or something but that costs money. With all the FREE information (I'm all about opensource!!), i want to take full advantage of it. Can anyone suggest some structure or outline that i should go about learning about security?

Thanks in advance

Someone posted this website a couple of days ago, I cant remember who but it is a great site with a lot of free books on programming and such for reading.

http://ask.ii.uib.no/ebt-bin/nph-dwe...ew;cs=fullhtml

otherwise, understanding TCP/IP, dns, routing, networking in general is a great place to start this website has a lot to look at and so you can always turn to the magic tool

If you plan on paying a good book I came across as an ice breaker is "Hack attacks Revealed" worth the money. Enjoy

Why not start with the area of security you're interested in? Are you interested in forensics? Then start looking at log files and how they're formated. Start looking at how Linux tracks users as they access the system. Take a look at the number of different ways one can access the system and start making a database for yourself.

Are you interested in network security? Get yourself a sniffer and start watching the traffic going in and out of your machine. Learn about the different programs that are network daemons waiting for network connections. Start learning about firewalls and how they work.

Are you interested in viruses? Take a look at some of the current viruses out there at some of the AV research centers like Symantec's AV Center. Find out about the most common virus file extensions and what they're accessing (like .vbs, .exe, etc).

Are you interested in physical system security? ThinkGeek sells a fingerprint scanner. Start researching terms like "biometrics", and work from there.

There are several different fields of systems security. The trick to learning about any of them, is to break down exactly what you want to learn into smaller chunks. You're never going to sort through all the information out there by doing a Google search for "computer security". When you narrow your search enough and start learning about some more specific concepts, start experimenting with them. You may find out you need some additional skills along the way, but you've gotta start somewhere. Good luck in your search, and let us know if you have any more specific questions about any concepts.

Humm.... well since you've gotten into linux, might I suggest a few books? Hacking exposed is a good book that shows the ins and outs of things. VB for dummies, learn C/C++ in 28 days, unix in a nutshell, these are some of the books that I own. Many of these books mentioned includeing others, im I am just now getting starting on.