Ham Radio Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Hi Everyone! I am new to this hacker thing. I have watched some Hak5 shows, and love it. :) even though I don't understand some of the things that they are talking about, lol. I plan on to continue to watch the show, learn, and hopefully participate if that's ok, :). An advice that you guys can give for someone starting out would be greatly appreciated. Books to read, videos to watch, anything. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telot Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Welcome to the community Ham Radio. In order to recommend anything, it'd greatly help us help you if we knew where you currently are in your tech knowledge. Even simple things such as, are you familiar with linux? The next thing is, what are you interested in? Judging by your username, you like the RF stuff. Most everyone here loves hacking wifi, so a awus036h (purchase from hakshop.com to support the show!) is an absolute must for getting started. Watch all of the haktips about wifi for a good starter. If you want to delve deep into wifi, watch Vivek's Wifi Megaprimer on securitytube.net. Once you've got the hang of it, you can get into the pineapples (where the *real* fun is at in my opinion). The pineapple community is huge here - by far the most active sub-forum where you can find tons of helpful folks and tons of reading material. I tried as best I could given the lack of info you provided - Hope this helps! telot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ham Radio Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 Welcome to the community Ham Radio. In order to recommend anything, it'd greatly help us help you if we knew where you currently are in your tech knowledge. Even simple things such as, are you familiar with linux? The next thing is, what are you interested in? Judging by your username, you like the RF stuff. Most everyone here loves hacking wifi, so a awus036h (purchase from hakshop.com to support the show!) is an absolute must for getting started. Watch all of the haktips about wifi for a good starter. If you want to delve deep into wifi, watch Vivek's Wifi Megaprimer on securitytube.net. Once you've got the hang of it, you can get into the pineapples (where the *real* fun is at in my opinion). The pineapple community is huge here - by far the most active sub-forum where you can find tons of helpful folks and tons of reading material. I tried as best I could given the lack of info you provided - Hope this helps! telot You know what, you are so right! Sorry about that! Here we go! My name is Elijah, and I am 20 years old. I have been working with windows my entire life. My first windows experience was Windows ME (I know, It was terrible, the system crashed and my parent's made me pay $100 dollars to repair it) when I was 6 or 8, I can't really remember. I have always liked computers, and tech stuff. I have a computer repair business, but I mostly focus on windows and software. I have been keeping up with Linux for years, but recently just got really into it. I installed Ubuntu on my 3 year old Windows 7 laptop, and recently made it my main OS. I know about backtrack linux, but have never really gotten into it. You are correct about my name, Ham Radio. I have a Ham Radio license, and enjoy doing stuff. Unfortunately, i have never really had an excess of money so even though I have a General Class license, I haven't gotten an HF rig cause i can't afford it. I want to get a Nexus 7, so that I can hack that and put Ubuntu on it, but can't even afford that right now. If you had a scale of 1 to 10 of how much I know about linux, I would say I am a 3, maybe. That's probably pushing it. I found that ALFA USB Wifi adapter in the store, and can probably get that, thanks for recommending that. :). I also created a post in the Introduce Yourself thread if you guys would like to read some more details about me. :). Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airman_dopey Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Hey Ham, I too have been into computers all my life. My Dad brought home an 8086 when I was younger and I would sit and watch him mess around in the CLI for hours at a time. He used to get mad that I watched him, but I didn't care. I was hooked. Joined the military where I got into networking a lot, and eventually discovered what pen testing was, so started learning that. My knowledge has grown from simply migrating through the different ways computers work, to how they talk to each other, to how you can manipulate the conversations. When I discovered Hak5 that's when I really started buckling down and learning what there is to know about ethical hacking. I started reading everything I could find; from news stories to forums on here. I installed backtrack. I watched old episodes of Hak5 and listened for each thing they were doing. If there was mention of a tool, program, ability, etc that I was unaware of I would write it down, pause the show, and research the hell out of it. TBH it was slow learning, but it was not spoonfed. I earned every bite. Once I bought the pineapple (this past Christmas) I decided to get more into things you could do with the honeypot besides simply 1-click pwning. I wanted to see how the tools worked on a PC and if I could simulate the modules (with the exception of Karma). Once I started that, I got together with a friend of mine and we're seeing how much we can make our own tools to expand the abilities of the pineapple to a (Pi)neapple or a pineapple connected to a laptop. Then it was finding out how to use those same tools without a pineapple. Long story, and I'm sorry, but I do not know how to "point you in a direction". All I can do is explain what I did to get where I am at and see if any of it can help you. DIg into the different tools available. Learn about what they do and how they work. Understand the trusts that they are abusing. When you learn that, think about how you could take that and use it in different situations. Hacking seems to be more about imagination than raw technical ability. It also depends on where you want to go and what interests you. Some people like the exploitation end of things. Some people like to code new software to do new things against a target. Some people really like getting into fuzzers and manipulating programs to do what they weren't intended to do. I personally dig the exploitation side. But my interest is finding out what takes people a long time to do and finding ways to speed up the process. I also love to pass on what I've learned. So for me, that's the contribution I most enjoy making to the community. See what's out there and what you can do. Don't get frustrated with it. Learning something this complex takes a long long time to master. If it is important to you, you'll persevere. If you simply chose to dabble in it, that's fine; but don't expect to do these great amazing things that you see others that have spent lifetimes honing their trade. The important thing is to read, research, and practice (in legal environments, such as a lab, a VM, etc). Ask the community for assistance, but don't ask for knowledge you haven't first tried to get yourself. Help others help you (a tired cliche). And enjoy the hell out of it because this stuff IMO is the most fun you can have on a computer! P.S. Sorry for the book. I'll get down off my soapbox now. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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