10
« on: July 04, 2013, 02:25:54 PM »
First of all- Hello everyone
I have a question that I'm struggling with right now and believe that some of the posters on this forum would be more then adequate in shedding some light on the subject. In the near past, I have decided that I want to become *drum roll* a hacker. I know it's kind of a grandiose statement, but please hear me out.
At 1st I just toyed around with some basic functions like the "Inspect element" thing you have in your browser and was BLOWN away when I discovered that you can actually see the letters behind the '*' in the password login boxes. After that I started exploring and soon after, the realization dawned upon me that you can do a HELL of a lot more.
Please do not be fooled by my informal writing style- I bare no unrealistic expectations regarding this endeavor. My plan is devoting 3-5h a day for the next ~10years in order to master this area. I feel that I am in no rush to learn this since I actually enjoy doing this and treat it as my pastime activity.
Now, since my overall knowledge of computers is around average, the first course of action should probably be to 'get me up to speed'. I have spent ~30h researching and devised the following plan of learning for my self:
1) Understanding the basics of how the computer works
2) Understanding the Windows and Unix OS
3) Learning languages (in the following order): C, C++, php, html and finally assembly
4) Learning about and getting a strong knowledge base about networks (local and the internet)
My goal is, ultimately, being able to reverse engineer software, discover vulnerabilities
and become a 'white hat' hacker
So my question would basically be:
a) IYO, Is the learning course I have stated above valid ?
b) Is it possible to make this journey on your own- without a real live mentor and/or institutionalized assistance eg. a college?
And just as a side note:
c) I am 24yr old; Point blank: Do you think I am too old to start learning this from scratch?