Introduction
To Network Security
Where Can I Find More Information
?
Without obviously plugging our site too much, the best place for answers
to questions relating to this article is in our forums. The Security/Firewalls
Forum is the best place to do this -- so you can ask anything from the
most basic to the most advanced questions concerning network security
there. A lot of common questions have already been answered in the forums,
so you will quite likely find answers to questions like 'Which firewall
should I use ?'.
As far as off-site resources are concerned, network security is a very
vast field and there is seemingly limitless information on the subject.
You will never find information at so-called hacker sites full of programs.
The best way to learn about network security is to deal with the first
word first -- you should be able to talk networking in and out, from
packet header to checksum, layer 1 to layer 7.
Once you've got that down, you should start on the security aspect.
Start by reading a lot of the papers on the net. Take in the basics
first, and make sure you keep reading. Wherever possible, try to experiment
with what you have read. If you don't have a home lab, you can build
one 'virtually'. See the posts in the Cool Software forum about VMware.
Also, start reading the security mailing lists such as bugtraq and
security-basics. Initially you may find yourself unable to understand
a lot of what happens there, but the newest vulnerabilities are always
announced on these lists. If you follow a vulnerability from the time
its discovered to when someone posts an exploit for it, you'll get a
very good idea of how the security community works.. and you'll also
learn a hell of a lot in the process.
If you're serious about security, it is imperative that you learn a
programming language, or at least are able to understand code if not
write your own. The best choices are C and assembly language. However
knowing PERL and Python are also valuable skills as you can write programs
in these languages very quickly.
For now, here are a few links that you can follow for more information:
www.securityfocus.com
- A very good site with all the latest news, a very good library and
tools collection as well as sections dedicated to basics, intrusion
detection, penetration testing etc. Also home of the Bugtraq mailing
list.
www.sans.org - A site
with excellent resources in its reading room, people who submit papers
there are trying for a certification and as a result its mostly original
material and of a very high calibre.
www.security-portal.com
- A good general security site.
www.cert.org - The
CERT coordination center provides updates on the latest threats and
how to deal with them. Also has very good best practice tips for admins.
www.securityfocus.com/archive/1
- This is the link to Bugtraq, the best full disclosure security mailing
list on the net. Here all the latest vulnerabilities get discussed way
before you see them being exploited or in the press.
www.insecure.org
- The mailing lists section has copies of bugtraq, full disclosure,
security-basics, security-news etc etc. Also the home of nMap, the wonderful
port scanner.
seclists.org - This is a direct
link to the security lists section of insecure.org.
www.grc.com - For windows home users
and newbies just interested in a non technical site. The site is home
to Shields Up, which can test your home connection for file sharing
vulnerabilities, do a port scan etc, all online. It can be a slightly
melodramatic site at times though.
www.eeye.com - Home
of the Retina Security Scanner. Considered the industry leader. The
E-Eye team also works on a lot of the latest vulnerabilities for the
windows platform.
www.nessus.org -
Open source vulnerability scanner, and IMNSHO the best one going. If
you're a tiger team penetration tester and you don't point nessus at
a target, you're either really bad at your job or have a very large
ego. If there's a vulnerability in a system, nessus will find it.
www.zonelabs.com
- ZoneAlarm personal firewall for windows, considered the best, and
also the market leader.
www.sygate.com -
Sygate Personal Firewall, provides more configuration options than ZoneAlarm,
but is consequently harder to use.
www.secinf.net -
Huge selection of articles that are basically windows security related.
www.searchsecurity.com
- A techtarget site which you should sign up for, very good info. Chris
writes for searchnetworking.com
its sister site.. I don't think the references could be much better.
www.antioffline.com
- A very good library section on buffer overflows etc.
www.packetstormsecurity.nl
- The largest selection of tools and exploits possible.
Next
- Conclusion
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