I am fascinated by hacking, cracking, phishing and the underground of the Information Age.

These are my adventures into the Dark Side:

PHISHING:

Phisherprice: Fake Western Union Money Orders on eBay During Christmas (what a bastard)

Nigerian buddies (posting the Phishing letters from the cradle of civilization -- coming soon)

MALWARE:

Fun with trojan-spy.html.smithfraud

Hey, that's not a clock: HWCLOCK.EXE

Removing the W32.Codbot Worm

"Message from System to Alert" pop ups

Remove PS Guard Malware/Spyware

Spy Sheriff - will it protect you?

"Your Computer is infected!" - Get rid of it

Hacking Government systems is TERRORISM! (coming soon)

Certified Ethical Hacking:

(C|EH EC-Council Exam 312-50)--> Going to take the Security+ and CISSP first so this could take some time to complete.

Basic Security:

Secure your browser

Intrusion Detection Tools

Hacking and the Security Professional:

I've been hacked a few times (that I know of). As a security professional, it is my personal belief that being hacked (or hacking... ethically) is the best way to learn about phishing, social engineering, buffer overflows, denial of service attacks, malware etc.

Unfortunately, a lot of "information security professionals" don't know anything about what hacking is or what hackers are all about. The term "hacker" is not always a criminal activity. Information Security professionals should have exposure to hacking like cops have exposure to drugs.

Of course, some information security professionals don't have anything to do with hacking or anything technical (as Martin McKeay has pointed out to me). My point is that all Security Professionals (including cops, investigators, even Infantry) should know their enemies and their enemies tactics.

Like a detective knowing the criminal mind.

It was Sun Tzu, ancient Chinese warrior, author of The Art of War, that said that you must "know your enemy" before going into battle. If "you know your enemy and know yourself," he wrote, "you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Sun Tzu went on to say, "If you know yourself but not the enemy, every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."

And that is why I love going to Defcon. There is every spectrum of computer security aficionado. From brilliant white hats trying awakening the masses by pointing out security vulnerabilities to evil black hats dreadfully close to winning the title 'domestic terrorist' (as defined by the Patriot Act I).