Ultimate Knowledge

I guess you just major in Computer Science and minor in criminal whatever if you want to be anti-hacking FBI agent.

But I think 4 assembly books is a little bit overkill unless you have to have them for the college courses? I''d suggest you learn one first, then if you feel the need, buy another one. I only has one C++ book to learn from and I didn''t had the feel to buy another, and the only reason why I have 2nd one is because of college class requirement

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Original post by Zeraan
I guess you just major in Computer Science and minor in criminal whatever if you want to be anti-hacking FBI agent.

But I think 4 assembly books is a little bit overkill unless you have to have them for the college courses? I''d suggest you learn one first, then if you feel the need, buy another one. I only has one C++ book to learn from and I didn''t had the feel to buy another, and the only reason why I have 2nd one is because of college class requirement

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hummm i see what you mean. but i definelty know that assembly can''t be covered in one book which i''m not willing to limitate myself :D i''m HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE !!!... i dont understand this college thing here YET. i''m no ammerican. so minor you mean the first 4 years ? then major mean to actually be able to teach someone ? which is another 4 years right ?

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Original post by Metal Typhoon
hi there.

i was asking myself some questions. and i came up with this. Can you do anything with assembly ? ANYTHING ?

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Sure. There isn''t much you couldn''t have done with C these days, though. Mostly of interest to device driver writers and other hardware or embedded systems people.

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the next step is, for you to work on the anti-hacker side you MUST NOW how to hack right ?

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Nope. You could approach that way, but being a really good sys admin is just as good.

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another question For those out there , which MIGHT be my case ; just dont know YET, who want to work let''s say a FBI "anti-hacker" agent, what would you take during your university years ?

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Criminal justice.

From the FBI employment page:

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To qualify for training as a Special Agent, an individual must be a US citizen, or a citizen of the Northern Mariana Islands, and have reached his/her 23rd but not 37th birthday. All candidates must possess a valid driver''s license and must pass a polygraph examination, a drug test, and a color vision test. Other requirements include uncorrected vision not worse than 20/200 (Snellen) and corrected 20/20 in one eye and not worse than 20/40 in the other eye. Applicants must possess a four-year degree from a college or university accredited by one of the regional or national institutional associations recognized by the United States Secretary of Education.

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Recommended degrees are law and accounting. For your focus, I''d recommend a CS minor.

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For now i''m buying 4 assembly books and 2 anti hacking books, about 500 or 400 bucks. Well is thie ENOUGH !? or do i need to aquire more knowledge ?

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4 assembly books? Huh? All you need is one good one. Try one assembly book, and as much about e-commerce, databases, and systems administration as you can get. Be warned: security work as actually pretty boring.

If you''re really interested in data security, I''d recommend you check out the NSA, particularly their high school and college scholarship programs. The NSA handles government data security and computer espionage efforts, so they''re probably a better fit for your interests. For the NSA, you''d want a 4-year comp sci degree.

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Metal Typhoon

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Can you do anything with assembly ? ANYTHING ?

Well yes, you can do all kinds of things with assembly. I think you may have meant, can you do everything with assembly, which is also obivious not true. You can do anything the computer can do with assembly - including things it was not designed to do, but is capible of (e.g. the infamous High Memory Area of DOS systems).

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the next step is, for you to work on the anti-hacker side you MUST KNOW how to hack right ?

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It depends. There is a large gulf between formually demonstrating that a security system is attackable and actually breaking it.

By-the-way, hacking is an incorrect term - what you mean is cracking. A hacker is someone who empirically determines how a system works, as opposed to someone who is trained, told, or has documentation. If you sit down with a PS2, take it apart, and start figuring out how to write your own software for it - you are a hacker. If you sit down and start figuring out how to circumvent the security of a system, you are a cracker. In the US, hacking is legal but cracking isn''t.

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who want to work let''s say a FBI "anti-hacker" agent, what would you take during your university years ?

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Have a look at the FBI site, and see what the jobs are asking for. Do that

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For now i''m buying 4 assembly books and 2 anti hacking books, about 500 or 400 bucks. Well is thie ENOUGH !? or do i need to aquire more knowledge ?

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Most likely you''ll need alot more knowledge, though that''s a good start. I suspect the FBI will require an advanced degree for this type of work, and you''ll want some experience too.

...

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Original post by CheeseGrater
Nope. You could approach that way, but being a really good sys admin is just as good.

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As I see it, you have to be a hacker to be a good sys admin.

sorry for the use of the word hacker.. i really meant cracker ..

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assembly books? Huh? All you need is one good one. Try one assembly book, and as much about e-commerce, databases, and systems administration as you can get. Be warned: security work as actually pretty boring.

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no way u can learn assembly in deep with one book only... and why you say it''s a boring job :D please i need to know it why

and does cryptography fall into this all ?

Well, to be that ultimate, even a thousand dollar book won''t do you any good. You had to learn more than assembly (books), and gain knowledge thru many hard experiences, chipping your blunt skill to a well-rounded god-like wisdom... a.k.a reaching enlightenment.

Anyway you can be that god-like if you had started this from the age of 3... given that you are now around early 30s.

Well, books aren''t enough. They are always not enough. Experience, you need tons of experience, in assembly, in cracking, and in real life situation.

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Flamewars don''t make you look smart, but idiot.

... and to add, you have to had the ability to crack/hack in high-security system and end up 'influence' enough for getting in jail and prohibited to use any communication devices.

[edited by - DerekSaw on January 13, 2003 1:15:33 AM]

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Original post by Metal Typhoon
learn assembly in deep with one book only... and why you say it''s a boring job :D please i need to know it why

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Because you''re going to be spending most of your days 1) Reading through reams of system logs and 2) Attempting to explain to clueless judges and juries what those logs mean.

If you end up a security consultant as well, you can add 3) Reading through tons of server code looking for buffer overflows.

Life isn''t much like the movie hackers. Cracking and ''Anti-Cracking'' are both _extremely_ boring, repetitive activities.

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and does cryptography fall into this all ?

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In your proposed focus, not really. Cryptography would be more about trying to design cracker-proof communications protocols.


Crypto is also important for signals intelligence/data security, which is the purview of the NSA and doesn''t have a whole lot to do with catching crackers... It''s more about keeping other countries from cracking us (& our communications) during wartime.

If you''re interested in Cryptography, you should pursue a mathematics degree, preferably with a little graduate study. (NOTE: The NSA employs the more matheematicians than any other group or company in the world.)

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Original post by Metal Typhoon
Can you do anything with assembly ? ANYTHING ?

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Gotta show you this too, I''m so proud ^_^



It''s a Mode7 3d-engine, where the renderer is written in assembly. I wrote it in about 3 - 4 hours and it uses over 100 asm commands. I''m still gonna try to optimize it a bit and add sprite support.

/MindWipe