How did you learn?

[TheGibson 0]

In 1995 my girlfriend taught me how to cut and paste! That was the start of it all. I went to tech school for electricity and electronics which needed pcs to program chips and PLC's and different things. From there I was really hooked. I started collecting broken pcs and buying parts. I actually overclocked a P2 233mhz to 400mhz at one point, totally ground breaking stuff. I would take all my broken machines and build Frankensteins! I bought books and started learning everything I could take in. I had a friend at work that was also into computers and still is that taught me a lot of basic stuff. (good guy). I went to another school and got my Linux+, A+, Security+, MCSE, CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, and I'm working on web security and design certs. I work full time as a net admin/help desk/web designer/ and security professional. And on the side I do freelance everything. I'm even a licensed electrician. As for hacking eh, it's part of the game. I find myself "hacking my own networks looking for holes and such. That's about it. I try to use as much open source software as I can and my favorite OS's are Debian and Win7. I never stop learning for sure. I have over 2,000 manuals and how to's in either PDF format or real books. Remember those? I think they were made out of paper.

[FlamingFox 0]

I learned via books and the internet. With the dawn of express editions, however, that's when I really started to seriously learn.

[pbock 0]

I ,personally, started to learn this very year, for the moment I'm trying to learn about programming , I'm learning Python as my first language and reading as many pdf files about hacking and read some about phreaking that got my interest ( especially the one i found describing the 2111 conference....so many people talking on 1 free loop. incredible) but i read 1 article( for the moment ) here on BinRev that says that Phreaking doesnt really work with the new digital age of phones.

my solution to revive phreaking is, if its getting digital ....it's just getting closer to hacking....so mixing phreaking and hacking together might revive the flame (i have no knowledge whatsoever of what im talking about....im just firing ideas and suggestions as they come).

i have attached the file where i learnt about phreaking (it's pretty old but it still hooked my interest)(the p25 is just where i am at in the file)

The Official Phreaker p25.pdf

[olorcain 0]

I started out messing around with BBS's and playing around with various versions of Dos from 3.2 to 6.22

Then I got into Linux, around this time I met a guy at the local ISP and started going to Linux user group meetings

Met another guy that knew a lot and had the coolest hacker den with a Thin net BNC connected network of computers including an X,Y plotter

He gave me a box of old computer parts such as 8088's 286's 386's 486's etc. So I went home and called him up later and said hey "how do I marry these mfm drives together?" on the first 8088 I had ever built and he gasped and then started laughing as he said "What, those things still work! I used to rest my beer on those motherboards!" Then while in middle school I hacked into the computers in the library and then again in the guidance counselor's office whereby his jaw dropped when I told him I didn't need his password to get into his computer. These were Dos machines that were easily exploited by holding down the shift key on startup thereby dropping one into a C:\> prompt. Anyway for this little stunt myself and my one buddy got banned from using the computers by the time we got into high school.

My buddy and I made the school call in Technicians to fix the problem. I had no problem explaining to the guidance counselor that their computers were wide open.

I don't really engage in any sort of malicious behavior though, this was just a middle school prank but pointed to serious vulnerability on their part.

[FallChallenge 0]

just lonely state..

[yoshi 0]

How does a 2 year old hook up a computer and stay up to read manuals after their parents have gone to bed? I'm not trying to flame, but that seems very unlikely as most two year olds aren't even potty trained let alone reading computer manuals. I started learning by reading forums and ebooks mostly. That's how I still stay updated most of the time!

Lol, ageed. I'm pretty sure I was still grasping the aspect of speech at 2 years old, and im sure I couldn't read. How did I get started? I dunno, around 12 my dad got some computer, I think it ran win 3.1. He used it for the early version of "Quicken" on it mostly. I usually just played the helicopter game on it (the one were you navigate it through a cave without hitting the walls), but I was deep into console gaming back then, so I was doing that mostly. Later on, at 16, I moved in with my mother and step-dad, he had a computer with win 95 or 98 on it. And he knew a few things about computers.

He kept it pass protected at first. Then one day my friend came over and wanted to try to guess the password, well he did in about 3 tries. I remember it was "for my eyes only". My step dad came home while were logged in, he was mad. But he started letting me use the computer whenever, which ended up being all the time. I usually just browsed pr0n and things like that. Search engines were not really rampant yet so you just did a www.porn.com or searched in AOL or something. But the idea of AOL, dialup, and things like that were interesting to me back then.

In high school some friends of mine sort of "fell" into hacking, of course I got into, and every other counter-coulter activity in existence. Things were different back then, everybody was doing "pings of death" and doing netbios hacking. Then I moved out and wasn't online as much, and I got into hardware, as a profession and hobby. But about 4 years ago I just picked up were I left off with software and have been addicted ever since. I am self taught, and do know a little about most typical "hacking" subjects. looking back though, I think if I would have focused on one topic at a time, and not spread myself so much, I would have learned more this far.

Edited September 29, 2010 by yoshi

[Zee5han 0]

I got into the computers and programming and hacking all when I was 15... I remember that I was a dumbass in computers and stuff before I turned 15... But when one of my buddy's in school showed me how to shutdown a remote computer... That got me curious and that is when I started reading about programming and hacking and stuff...

Then I realized what Linux really was... And that it is not one OS... But just a kernel.. my friends still think that it is an OS...

I started off with python and then moved to C... C really caught my attention with all it's low level stuff...

I was completely self taught... My parents and not at all tech savvy... And same case with most of my friends...

[hack1397 0]

yp...no hacker can taught you what you wanna learn because he is hacker and hackers don't have time...

one have to learn on his own............

Curiosity is mother as said above.

[TheIllusiveMan 2]

Most kids on sites like this only want to fit in with people they view as being more intelligent and tech savvy than themselves.

I, on the other hand, simply like computers.

That's the difference between a true computer hobbyist and people who call themselves "hackers" to draw attention onto themselves.

If you want to learn about computers then read dry to-the-point computer related books (Instead of looking like a dork in front of a payphone... or trying to lockpick at a Defcon seminar.)

Edited June 2, 2011 by TheIllusiveMan

[thesweetdevilguy 0]

I like computers and its my job.. as such i am quite new to hacking / cracking..

But learning never stops.

i know how to programme (that is a need by the way )

wish there were people who could point people like us in the right direction..

[AmarEkanO 0]

Getting around annoying restrictions and beating a 'foolproof' system were the main motives.... It's gives me a kick when i can outsmart others at their own game...

[petergunsmith 0]

First encounter with computer was in the school... learned logo,basic but never understood the use of it... then had first encounter with internet during summer break.. i fell in love with it.. then from that time on read lots of books on computer but then still could not try out cz i did not have a computer.. during one summer break tried to take a course on computer but the course turns out to be too costly for me, so dat summer break i went to govt.cyber cafe( it is cheap ) taught myself how to use internet and all from scratch ... now got myself a lappy .. still learning.. cant finish learning too many things to learn and try out...

Edited May 29, 2012 by petergunsmith

[cptcrunchbang 0]

taught myself mostly buuuuut used others guides primarily to begin to do so. So I figure it's a combo.

 

Now I'm engaging with others and trying to get active in the community since I'm pretty certain that will help.

[RachelZ 0]

I plan on learning on here and through tutorials.

[Phreakman 1]

I taught myself mostly but I had a few friend teach me some simple stuff.

[yDoc 0]

I spent majority of my life learning to program, the other stuff just kind of slipped in there as well 

[Liquid 0]

Currently I'm still in the process of learning, and always will be.

 

I'm relatively new to the tech scene, but I've been active in the past few years, so I'm just trying to get all caught up. I myself learn by just reading what others post, and looking up keywords that they use. If I don't understand what they're talking about I'll try to split it up, and research each part until I have a understanding of it.

[Securex 1]

Gray hat. And i spent about 15 years to learn. 

Mostly from the internet and manuals

[tekio 104]

Self taught 100%. Got my MCSE in the 90's with self-study. Then got into hacking looking up more advanced material regarding MCSE certs. "Really? How do these permissions work? Where are passwords stored? How does this TCP/IP thing rally work? Oh... I can see how in wireshark"