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Comment by kibwen | Hacker News Reader

Information security is a topic that I'm very interested in, but it's such a large area that I don't know even where to start. In this field especially, "learning by doing" seems an extraordinarily bad idea. You say this is your speciality; how did you acquire it? Are there any online courses, good books, or useful (i.e. non-bullshit) certifications that you can recommend?

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I acquired it by just doing it over the years I've been programming/engineering. When I was younger I wanted to be a "hacker" (the kind that does malicious stuff and ends up locked in federal prison), so I started using tools like backtrack to see if I could break websites, and it turned out I could. I just read things like OWASP, and I currently work for a security company that specializes in financial institutions (AKA banks, credit unions etc) so I acquire knowledge on the job as well. As for books, I found Security Strategy: From Requirements to Reality to be really good, but I haven't really read too many books on this subject to be honest. Certifications are usually cheap and no good, so I don't recommend those. I recommend learning about communication protocols though because if you understand those, you can figure out attacks that may happen just by knowing how they work. As well, there are applications like Webgoat that allow you to download them and they are full of security flaws so you can kind of learn from that. There are guides to teach you how to hack webgoat out there. The key to great info sec is thinking like a hacker, and you acquire by hacking websites (preferably webgoat/your own).

It has become a lot easier to "learn by doing" without breaking any rules.

If you are looking at web application security, there are a number of "simulation" games. The first that come to mind are Damn Vulnerable Web App (http://www.dvwa.co.uk/), The Hackme Bank (http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/hacme-bank.asp...) or OWASPs WebGoat (https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_WebGoat_Proje...)

DVWA is probably the best choice for somebody with no prior knowledge. A quick google search on "dvwa walkthrough" will get you started.

You can do a lot of learning-by-doing without actually exploiting vulnerabilities, or even doing anything illegal. Especially if you're on a college campus with an interesting computer network, and ubiquitous wireless networks (for relative anonymity). Do port scans (nmap) and explore interesting services you find (with netcat + google), dump DNS entries for campus and grep for interesting words, then do more port scans, etc.

Here are a couple of great books about web/software security:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Web-Application-Hackers-Handbook/d...

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Sins-Software-Security-One-off/...

I love WAHH.

I can't stand "Deadly Sins".

I'd replace it with _The Tangled Web_, Zalewski's new web security book; WAHH and _Tangled_ is a formidable amount of knowledge to keep on tap.

If don't want/unable to get, Tangled Web, similar useful information by same author at "Browser Security Handbook" http://code.google.com/p/browsersec/wiki/Main

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