I'm very interested in the internet and also security technology and how pretty much everything in a comp works ( software not hardware). So i was wondering what computer language should i start off with, and what classes should i take in college to go into this career

Career? How do you figure that, exactly?

The idea of a "white hat" hacker (vs a "black hat") is simply that you do no wrong with your skills or information. If you find a vulnerability in a piece of software or remote exploit on a server, you contact the person responsible for that software/system and fill them in on the details. So it's a bit vague of a goal as a profession. Security consultant, maybe?

Issues of career aside, the best place to start would be learning C and reading up on OS theory and design. There are plenty of books on OS design and the security implications. Once you have a decent handling on the concepts involved, you can take a peek into the kernel or some daemon code and get a more real-world view of how it all fits together.

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cool cool thanks

A good understanding of data communications and networking (for example, how TCP/IP works) would be very helpful.

As for what classes to take in college, the ideal answer is "a computer science degree."

aight, atm im majoring in philosophy hopefully i can get a double major started, with philosophy and cs paired up i should be able to reach my goals, i just have no idea where to start, like i want to start learning C or python and HTML, but then i don't know too much about how networks work and how people break into them, also how viruses/worms/trojans work and how they are spread. if you guys know of any good books please post the names thanks

This is a widely used textbook on how operating systems work. The last chapter describes several exploits in great detail.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operati...dp/0136006639/

You may also want to read this:

How To Become A Hacker

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@ms3fgx- i am reading that atm. :P, that's why i wanted to learn python first ^^

@dugan- that book looks interesting, i think imma have to buy it or find it in the library

* BUMP

http://cs50.tv/
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_d...sid=1906978272
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_d...sid=1906978284


Enjoy.

TBH, I don't think a white hat would obfuscate his title IMHO.

There are specific University courses in the UK at least, for hacking. Abertay offers both undergrad and postgrad ones. If you go to this site: http://www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk/secur...ty-degrees-uk/ , you'll find some more, at undergrad level.

This is not an *endorsement* of the above courses, I know nothing about them personally, just to tell you that they *exist*.

I bought a book on "Grey Hat Hacking" some years back, which was very good, but I forget its exact title.