Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Learning Computer Security

I have always been interested in learning computer and mobile device security. I hear the terms "buffer overflow," "jailbreak," "root," etc, and have a genuine interest in learning what security vulnerabilities are, how to find them, and how people incorporate them into mobile device tools like Pwnage Tool and redsn0w for iPhone, and the long list of tools for obtaining root access on Android devices.

Recently, I started reading Computer Security by Dieter Gollmann. This book is filling in many of the holes I had in my understanding of computer security. Over the past week or so, I've been getting through a chapter every other day or so. They're pretty small-sized chapters, which makes getting through the heavy topics not QUITE so tedious lol.

I'm considering suggesting this as a course for the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAP-CEP). I've been a nuclear energy instructor with the program for the past 2 semesters, and I participated in numerous DAP-CEP programs in high school. I think an introductory course on computer security would be very interesting and helpful to the students. This book is very heavy reading though, so it would take a lot of manipulation to make the curriculum more easily digestible to a non-professional audience.

One other book I'm looking forward to reading is Mobile Device Security for Dummies when it comes out in July.

For some hands-on experience, I have been looking at the topic of penetration testing. Blackbuntu looks very promising for learning about security hands-on. I would like to take a class, but haven't found anywhere in my area with the particular topic I'm looking for yet.

This topic interests me very much. It's funny how much I enjoy learning this stuff on my own. If I had the class in school, I'm not sure it would be this easy and fun lol.


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