I guess I should have made myself more clear about why I wanted to
learn to program. I'm a Windows Sys Admin/Database admin -> An
assigned duty is IASO (Information Assurance Security Officer) -
so computer and network security is about 1/4 to 1/3 of my day to
day job. I want to move into Network Security as a career
eventually. That's why I've been so hard core about learning
Linux, and programming.
Based on hanging at Capture the Flag during Def Con last year - I
found that most of the guys were heavy Linux/BSD users, and
everyone could code in at least a few languages. I want to go
through the food chain (Sys Admin, Firewall Admin, IDS dude, blah,
blah, blah) because I eventually want to become a penetration
tester.
Reality Check:
I went to Def Con's CTF a few weeks after getting my MCSE - and
got my heart broken....I couldn't believe how good those guys are.
At that point I realized that's what I wanted to be able to do. So
that began my journey into the land of *nix. Now I'm comfortable
with shell scripting, and muddling through C programming. I want
to go through 3 or 4 more books on C, before I jump to my next
language - which looks like it's going to be Perl.
I now look at the time I spent doing all of the certifications I
did last year - and although I don't think it was a waste of time
(it got me off the help desk - into a Sys Admin job), I do think
that now I really need to sit down and really pound out some code
before I move on to another job.
I'm finding that I like being able understand proof-of-concept
code, and in order to be good at pen-testing I'd need to be able
to make changes to proof-of-concept code & exploit code to fit the
situation.
This is truely why I'm looking to learn to be a better code-head.
OK - I'll get off my soap box......
Joe McCray
CCNA, Windows 2000 MCSE
A+, Network+, Linux+
www.hardestworkingmanonline.com
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Bennett Todd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 12:03:26 -0400
>"security" doesn't immediately answer the question, at least in my
>mind.
>
>I'd recommend building two lists: what do you want to do, and what
>platforms do you want to do it on. E.g. if the answers
were "logfile
>analysis, and other data munging that looks like it" and "Unix-
like
>platforms" respectively, then there'd be little question, perl
would
>be the leader, with its next of kin python and ruby as the
likeliest
>competitors.
>
>If instead you want to write secure network programs, there'd be
>some different choices. Personally, I'd recommend perl for those
>jobs where its performance is adequate for the job (surprisingly
>many) and Cyclone for lower-level systems programming jobs. There
>are other recommendations to be found.
>
>If you master algorithms, data structures, programming style, etc.
>--- the kind of abstracts that are discussed in Kernighan and
Pike's
>books --- then the choice of language will be of less import, you
>can shop for one whose expressiveness, performance, domain-
specific
>support facilities, and platform availability seem to be the best
>match for your needs; if you expect to need to invest a lot of
time
>in acquiring a deep mastery of the language then consider the
issue
>of longevity as well.
>
>-Bennett
>
>
________________________________________________________________
Sent via hardestworkingmanonline.com
