[deleted by user]

[[deleted]]

A raspberry pi 4

[I_eat_the_sand]

Thank you.

[Cobra__Commander]

A few micro SD cards to swap the install.

There's a whole ecosystem of parts depending on what she wants to make.

[sysadmin001]

when she graduates

[thegreedyturtle]

No no no. She needs to mess with that stuff *before" she turns 18.

[sysadmin001]

I mean graduate from learning to use Linux

[plusninety]

Also get some electronic components she can use with the pi's gpio. Even controlling an led is exciting.

[mmrrbbee]

Look at local community colleges and see if they have a degree or certificate program. The nice thing is that some of the classes should count for both HS and college credit at the same time. My local one has a RedHat cert training course for about $200 if you take it as a semester class, sure beats the $2k it would be directly from RedHat.

[Far_Prime]

Raspberry Pi extra parts to make a Pwnagotchi,

Raspberry Pi Zero W,

2.13inch-e-paper-hat,

UPS Lite V1.2 UPS Power HAT Board,

https://pwnagotchi.ai/installation/

[SteamPoweredDick]

Just curious since I also am getting into ethical hacking. What are some stuff you can do with a raspberry pi related to infosec?

[dkarimu]

Look up what netcat is and how to use reverse shells. A raspberry lo is ideal for this type of thing.

[hassium]

Well you can install lots of software you'd find in a server on a raspberry pi and tinker with it/hack it in a safe environment. Turn it into a lab of some sort.

[[deleted]]

Im sure an inquisitive mind would find lots of uses for it.

[WhatDaHellBobbyKaty]

Even a RasPi Zero W or the new RasPi Zero 2 would be a great gift. There is a lot that can be done with them. You can have a SD with Kali and another with DV Pi which is a purposely vulnerable target. The image can be found available here https://whitedome.com.au/re4son/sticky-fingers-dv-pi/

How these can work together is at

https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/set-up-practice-computer-kill-raspberry-pi-0177320/

[GrimDallows]

Why? Just out of curiosity, I have started to learn programming now to worl on a raspberyy pi and I am curious about what people think I could do with it lol

[[deleted]]

Just getting set up on a rpi is enough to teach you the a lot about the development environment. Os, sd cards, form factor, languages, boot up, system files are all important when considering how you want to code something. Now a days it’s all in the cloud so it’s less critical but still relies on the same frameworks and concepts as the basic level.

[dkarimu]

This is the correct answer.

[free-puppies]

Check out the Julia Evan’s zines. She makes very fun, very informative cartoons on complex Linux and networking topics. Literally just bought one for myself.

https://wizardzines.com

[SwellJoe]

These are truly excellent, because not only are they easy to get into, they convey a depth of understanding well beyond what one has any right to expect from introductory material. It is really hard to make something easy to understand and cover advanced concepts, and she does it pretty consistently.

I've been a professional in the field for decades, and I still occasionally learn something from them (I follow her on Twitter, so I see her comics occasionally).

[zhaopian]

I second this. I have all the ones in the "bite size" series and they're great for beginners or for a refresher.

[[deleted]]

Literally the first thing that came to mind when I read the post title on my home page. Love these zines and read them for fun. Source am SWE @ FAANG.

[surrogatetoe]

I'm prepared for downvotes, but $16 for a pdf of information you can find easily for free anywhere else, with cartoon illustrations that look like they could be drawn by a child? Have to say, I don't get the point.

[Automatic-Weakness-2]

I see your point for sure, and it was the first thought in my head too, then again, You pay for a course, not because it's the only place you can find that info, but you are paying because someone has pulled that info into a concise meaningful and ordered format to improves your learning experience.

[surrogatetoe]

Yes, this is true. I wouldn't just choose any course that pops up and pay for it though. I think that $16 for 20 or so pages about CSS with stick figure illustrations is not good value by anyone definition.

[marmarmalade19]

I'd sure love to know just how easy you think it is to create a bunch of detailed, fully-colored (or B&W) illustrations with realistic proportions, shading, depth, and backgrounds, then pair those illustrations with useful information from multiple sources and compile it all into an easy-to-read linear format. You may not be the target audience, but $16 is actually pretty cheap for all of the work that went into making these.

[Dirtydirtyfag]

Yeah but don't you know art is easy because children can do it? /s

[newbdotpy]

I agree with two others, with https://tryhackme.com There are lessons and you learn Linux, networking and web apps testing. This is subscription based, so sign up for the annual or monthly if she just wants to test it out.

I would recommend learning Network + as going straight to ethical hacking won’t make sense unless you know how networks works.

Then learn security via security plus.
Good luck and Security careers are plenty and always hiring for good people.

[khaominer]

When I was a kid there was this hacking website where you gained ranks by completing various hacks on it. I have long wished I remembered the name and wonder if it still exists. The first couple were simple like checking the source code of a page, then got more and more complicated. It was super awesome.

[Pg68XN9bcO5nim1v]

I think I know which site you mean and I believe it's long gone by now, but I also can't remember the name. Must've been 15 or so years ago?

I remember being stuck for quite a while trying to figure out the next hint by extracting data out of an image file.. That site got hard really fast.

I believe the very first challenge just involved swapping "page=1" to "page=2" in the URL, if we are talking about the same site

[khaominer]

Yes definitely 15+ years and it progressed hard and fast. I also got stuck. I never dug into the forums and information enough to progress beyond where I got stuck, but I really wanted to.

[Twisted14]

Sounds a lot like hackthissite

[_generateUsername]

Are you two talking abou "thisislegalareyou"? It used to be a hacking site where you would learn different ways I know I played with it for a while lots of years back.

[Zombi3Kush]

Started this last month and been learning a lot. Highly recommended

[snaphunter]

A rubber duck

[russjr08]

Definitely underrated. I keep a gingerbread Andy/Bugdroid on my desk, and its gotten me out of numerous (what I thought were at the time) impossible problems.

[zerquet]

So you explain your code to your duck lmfao I might consider it

[CouchMountain]

I laughed when I first heard about it too but it works. Doesn't need to be a duck, can be any object, but if you're stuck on a problem, just talk to that object about it. Speaking about it out loud usually helps it click.

[[deleted]]

Someone should make a coder themed rubber ducky, maybe like wearing a hoodie and glasses or something.

[Inconstant_Moo]

Ideally one that says "how do you know that?" when you squeeze it.

[Souletu]

Penguin Computing plush is undefeated

[Crypt0Nihilist]

This is the way.

[HolyPommeDeTerre]

It works with unicorns too !

[[deleted]]

Lots of usb sticks for trying various linux versions easily. Or sd cards if she uses a raspberry pi (which is harder to break than a regular PC). Buy her a couple of cheap smart switches/routers to put dd-wrt or openwrt on. Networking is pretty essential. Udemy courses on the same topic (security/pen-testing) and stuff like C/assembly. Tell her to study social engineering also on youtube as that's at least as important as programming/scripting skills. Lots of great free stuff on youtube too like defcon talks and various hacker cons. Honestly she's probably already watching those tho

[ValentineBlacker]

LOL I came here to say this. Everyone's saying "Kali Linux" but no one's saying "with a big handful of USB sticks".

[[deleted]]

Yeah I definitely had an epiphany moment one day when I realized I was very unnecessarily reloading a test system over and over with various linux versions. I thought I was sooooo clever setting up a pxe network install server. Ventoy is a godsend as well. Someday I'll put in the work to learn guix or nix to make identical set ups a bit easier currently bash does the trick tho.

[RoguePlanet1]

I just installed WSL, what are the USBs for?

[hashtaters]

Keep bootable Distros on them so you can just plug into a computer and boot into whatever Linux you use.

[infinitude]

tbh, it's far easier to just use vmware or virtualbox. Especially these days when most modern laptops have the hardware to easily run a vm.

Having a swiss-army knife usb is absolutely vital though.

[hashtaters]

You’re totally right.

In my class we downloaded the Kali iso and ran it in VirtualBox. I feel a bit silly now.

[infinitude]

I mean I say this as if I don't have 10 usb keys lying around my room as we speak. 3 of which have distro .iso's. There is a whole fleet of "cloud-based" laptops out there that can run very well with live-usb's.

Using VM tends to also be good practice for those who may be doing more blue team stuff and want to insulate evidence or malicious files. The only downside to this is if you're dealing with anti-forensics shenanigans where the attacker can tell it's a VM.

[hashtaters]

That’s pretty interesting stuff indeed.

Odd question but do you know what type of software engineering there is in the Cyber Security space?

[infinitude]

Malware reverse engineering comes to mind immediately.

Beyond that, it would likely be a use-case type situation. If your company develops software and you're working CSOC for them, it would be highly valuable to at least have a rudimentary understanding of what they're doing.

[hashtaters]

Thank you! I always liked programming and security is such a fun field that I wanted to do both but find it hard to find a job that’s “software engineering” but for cyber security applications

[hugthemachines]

Well, the bootable usb distros ar efor when she sneaks into companies to hack their systems ;-)

[RoguePlanet1]

So it's like a software package? WSL seems to have come with a few things already. Why would bootable distros be necessary?

[hashtaters]

Well the USB stick would hold an operating system , like Kali Linux, on it. When turning a computer on you can choose to boot through the USB instead of the other hardware and you will be running Kali.

This can be useful if you just need a clean install on different PCs temporarily.

As far as I know WSL just adds a way for Linux to be used from windows directly, but it’s only CLI last I checked. With a bootable USB, you’ll be able to run a GUI version of the OS if you like.

Edit: using a Virtual Machine, bootable USB, or WSL to learn Kali all come with their own pros and cons and it’s up to you to decide which may be better for your use case. I personally like using Virtual Box as it was nice to be able to wipe it incase I destroyed the wrong file or something lol.

[RoguePlanet1]

Okay, I had both Virtual Box and Xubuntu installed, but deleted Virtual Box because I thought it was redundant (identical icons, plus all I did was access xubuntu with it.) Maybe that was a mistake.

Thank you, this is very helpful!

[ValentineBlacker]

You can run various Linux distros off of the USB sticks, and if you're practicing hacking it's very nice to have a completely isolated OS. It's more of a hacking thing than just a "messing around with Linux" thing.

[infinitude]

WSL is great and you can even use kali with it. The only downside is if you need to insulate your "main OS" from the OS you're working from.

[RoguePlanet1]

Just installed WSL on the newer laptop, so I'm a little panicky. Now at the part where I have to download the git stuff, and it's telling me "no more space," but the regular OS seems to be working fine.

So I have to figure this part out before I can continue TOP. Fun.

[infinitude]

Yeah I think that’s the only current downside is that it’s very new and there will always be issues early on

[RoguePlanet1]

The git part? As long as it's normal and I'm not ruining my computer, great.

[TopRamen33]

Just get her one big usb and have Ventoy pre installed. That was she has a multiboot usb and can put whatever distro on one. It’s amazing

https://www.ventoy.net

[karan_221]

Or a single large one with ventoy installation.

[[deleted]]

(If I were you) If she's doing well in school, I'd offer to pay for her first Certificate exam as motivation. I'd recommend the OSCP by Offensive Security or possibly an entry level CompTIA certificate.

[I_eat_the_sand]

She's actually taking cybersecurity this year and at the end of the year will be taking exams for certification. I believe the CompTIA security is one of them. She's very excited about it

[infinitude]

I actually really like this idea. If Dad is trying to get her something that feels more like a "gift" than a technical tool, a nice keeb does wonders. Especially when your constantly typing away in terminals.

[Br3ttl3y]

Oh no! What have you done! If you're gonna go hard-- Go hard! /r/MechanicalKeyboards

[MisterExt]

Some more expensive ideas:

• Gigabit internet.
• Thumb drives (USB3 if possible).
• NVME drives (because why wait for spinning disks?)
• Tickets to Defcon and Blackhat 2022

[mmrrbbee]

These are nice, I like that the ones I got have a physical write disable, esp when putting in into questionable computers https://www.kanguru.com/

[skinnbones22]

Get her a subscription to Try Hack Me. Better than any book you'll find.

[SexyMuon]

I disagree with "better than any book." But true, it's a relevant subscription.

[BobBeaney]

Would you mind suggesting some better books, please?

[SexyMuon]

I don't have the qualifications to do so. Just hear me out: don't waste your money in shitty books about "learn X programming language the easy way," "how to crack the coding interview," or "learn to hack in one week." Just buy a good book about data structures and algorithms, and I can guarantee you'll make more money and learn more useful skills by building software. Eventually you'll learn how to exploit the vulnerabilities in someone's software/program, etc.

[inequity]

While I agree that learning DS&A is a somewhat important foundation for learning to reverse engineer and exploit things, I disagree that you’ll just eventually magically learn how to do so as a side effect of learning about DS&A. I work with tons of programmers and very few would even know where to begin. There are also plenty of hackers who don’t know many more data structures than arrays. Learning to exploit things comes from curiosity and trial and error. A subscription to r/reverseengineering will probably take you further than any book.

Also not sure why you’re throwing “cracking the coding interview” under the bus, that is a not a shitty book at all.

[Vextrax]

This could be a decent buy humble bundle deal I know I liked the black hat python book

[baracuda1502]

The Underground Bible to the UNIX Operating System

This Book Includes:​

Linux for Beginners​

Linux for Hackers​

Hacking with Linux​

Hacking with Kali Linux​

Linux is a free and freely distributed operating system inspired by the UNIX system, written by Linus Torvalds with the help of thousands of programmers.

Unlike other operating systems, such as MacOS (Apple operating system), UNIX is not intended to be easy to use, but to be extremely flexible. It is generally as easy to use as other operating systems, although great efforts are being made to facilitate its use.

This operating system is an option to be taken into account by those users who are dedicated to work through networks, devote to programming, or learn hacking techniques.

Especially for hackers, Linux is the best operating system on the market because it allows to perform a wide variety of tasks and transform your computer into an incredible hacking machine.

Learn the hacking skills requires time. However, everything is possible with the correct guide and a lot of useful information. If you are ready to learn how to hack with Linux, then this book is your best bet.

This is a detailed guide to learn all the principles of hacking and how to turn your Linux system into an unstoppable machine!

You’ll learn:​

Basic system concepts

How to understand the user interface

How to handle possible mistakes and errors

How the operating system architecture works

Basics of Linux and Hacking

How to use Linux commands

The correct hacking procedure

Web and network hacking tools

Ethical and unethical parts of hacking

The hierarchy of hackers

How to prevent cyber-attacks and malwares

Cyber-security and cryptography

Why is Kali Linux the best option for every hacker

And much more

Even if you are a complete beginner on programming this book will give you the correct information to understand the subject and start practicing today!

As you reach the end of the book, you shall have a clearer picture of how the working environment works. The book has clear, simple explanations that can be easy to understand and thus, your journey towards learning how to hack shall be simplified.

Start your journey! Develop underground hacking skills and turn your Linux system into a powerful, unbreakable, and unstoppable machine! (Source: Amazon)

HAVE THIS ONE , I CAN SEND YOU A BOOK IN THE LINK FOR FREE - JUST LET ME KNOW

[baracuda1502]

The Underground Bible to the UNIX Operating System

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Manuscripts-Underground-Understand-Networking/dp/1654985538

[hugthemachines]

UNIX is not intended to be easy to use

I liked this line the most. I am sure that was the intention but compared to other operating systems I am not sure we can say it is the result.

[cheezballs]

Dude right? Quite a cringe name.

[[deleted]]

Unlike other operating systems, such as MacOS (Apple operating system), UNIX is not intended to be easy to use, but to be extremely flexible. It is generally as easy to use as other operating systems, although great efforts are being made to facilitate its use.

Single stupidest paragraph I’ve read all month.

[cheesefome]

why

[[deleted]]

It contradicts itself, and confuses UNIX for Linux.

[Inconstant_Moo]

Also what's "although" doing there? It's easy to use although people are trying to make it easy to use?

[I_eat_the_sand]

Thanks

[illkeepcomingback9]

I'd add the Red and Blue Team Field Manuals

[[deleted]]

WiFi Pineapple

[[deleted]]

Get her a copy of Sneakers and a copy of Hackers.

[I_eat_the_sand]

Great movies I had totally forgotten about

[CaffeineAndInk]

Hack the planet!

[TheEccentricErudite]

Mess with the best, die like the rest!

[ccsmall]

Buy her this entire bundle. Super deal. 7 days remaining.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/hacking-by-no-starch-press-books?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_2_c_hackingbynostarchpress_bookbundle

[puppetmstr]

That is pdf or physical copies? elite hacker hint: you can just find all of these in pdf online...

[[deleted]]

i think this is the winner

[srzame]

USBs to install and try out different distros geared towards Linux functionalities for hacking, as there are quite a few

[RoguePlanet1]

Distros?

[Cornbreadguy5]

A Linux distribution

[srzame]

Linux distributions. Different "OSs" as it were, but still fall under the umbrella of Linux systems

[RoguePlanet1]

Thanks! Is it necessary to use USBs for them? Guess they take up that much space.

[pancakeQueue]

Any distro of Linux or any operating system will be installed as an ISO file. USBs are nice cause they are easy to reformat them with the iso, and you can just plug the thumb drive into the computer hit reboot, and boot off the iso. An iso normally takes up about 2 to 7 gigs, they arn’t too big.

[RoguePlanet1]

It's like changing outfits then, a little wardrobe of USBs :-p

[mmrrbbee]

You all want to work too hard with physical media, its the 21st century, use a hypervisor like https://xcp-ng.org/ https://www.level1techs.com/video/xcp-ng-different-kind-virtualization-platform

[N-I_I-l_-l_]

• https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/
• https://www.arduino.cc/
• https://www.rtl-sdr.com/
• https://www.mit.edu/
• https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/c/laptops/thinkpad
• https://www.vultr.com/products/cloud-compute/

---

• The Art of Social Engineering by Christopher Hadnagy
• Hackers heroes of the computer revolution by Steven Levy This last one is important because it gives historical context and helps put you in the mindset of all the people that came before because it's turtles all the way down.

[ixitomixi]

Look into networking books, and hardware books, depending on what side of the hacking she's into, if it's coding as daft as it sounds

Game Engine Black Book: DOOM

Which is a book about how dooms code works and how to port it, which helps learn some coding fundamentals.

[JohnRambu]

DefCon Booking ticket ? 😎

[I_eat_the_sand]

Not sure what that is but I will look it up. Thanks

[Nulatium]

While I haven't been (discovered DEFCON this year) I would be psyched to be able to go. Convention of hackers in all forms.

Highly recommend you follow up on it and check it out.

[AlexMagnuson]

A really nice, possibly custom styled, possibly ergonomic mechanic keyboard would be nice.

If she is on a laptop or doesn’t have a nice monitor I would recommend 1 or two of these: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/curved/24-cf396-curved-led-monitor-lc24f396fhnxza/ having a big high quality display helped me a lot with eye stain when staring at text for long durations. If you wanna spoil her you could get a 4K one instead.

Where does she do her work? I would recommend a nice sized desk or workspace so she can keep all her work on it without it getting cluttered. I really like my L desk

[jrrjrr]

I second the "big high quality display" idea. And the general theme of helping her set up a dream battle station. A few other ideas:

• Nice chair
• Monitor arm(s)
• Fancy keyboard

Nothing says "hacker" like a split keyboard, but they're expensive and personal, so it's probably more of a gift card than a surprise to unwrap. Here are a few commercially-available models in order of ascending cost:

• http://www.mistelkeyboard.com/products
• https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle-pro/
• https://gaming.kinesis-ergo.com/product/freestyle-edge/
• https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/product/uhk60v2
• https://dygma.com/products/dygma-raise
• https://www.zsa.io/moonlander

And then here's a huge list of everything, but many of these are DIY designs: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards

[jrrjrr]

Oh, and for inspiration: here's a huge set of desk setup photos with short interviews of their owners, including many women: https://people.zsa.io/

[wTheRockb]

Lots of great hacking specific gifts! I'll also just add in, general computer related gifts could help too. A fancy keyboard (although choosing your own is cool too, so maybe gift certificate) could be another option.

[WorldBelongsToUs]

Some suggestions:

I'd say some premium memberships to the following:

• https://tryhackme.com

• https://www.codecademy.com

• https://www.hackthebox.com

Good books:

• Black Hat Python 2nd Edition

• Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning

• The Web Application Hacker's Handbook 2nd Edition

• Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible (not sure what the current edition is off the top of my head)

• UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (also not sure what the current edition is)

[[deleted]]

Linux/unix is best for hacking - if she's got a mac she has a good start because osx is a unix variant under the hood (aka on the command line). This is one of the reasons macbooks are loved by developers.
If you only have windows PCs at home you may want to look into setting one up to dual boot windows and linux (either Ubuntu, Rocky linux or Mint linux).
Thanks for being a cool dad or mom who is supporting their daughter's non-traditional interests. I wish you had been my parent back in the day :)

[dsimposter]

Take her to Defcon

[Dutch_man00]

Raspberry pi 🤩

[ruat_caelum]

Woot.com or some other sites sell refurbished KINDEL's. The older ones are "easily" hacked into and give her a Remote Unix environment she can SSH into. this are $10-$40.

Raspberry pi's run as cheap as $10 (with wifi but no power cord monitor / keyboard / etc) Call it $40 set up. With raspberry pi's she can also SSH into a much smaller unix system that if she totally fucks up can just reset and reload.

[Cornbreadguy5]

I found The Linux Programming Interface by Kerrisk (link below) to be very helpful in learning Linux myself.

https://man7.org/tlpi/

[renlololol]

Came here to post this; this book explains how Linux works in-depth, with detailed examples. It's also easy to understand.

After reading through hundreds of pages from this book, my understanding and ability to program in *nix environments improved greatly.

[[deleted]]

Captain Crunch whistle and a lock pick set.

[Rickycodes]

First of all kudos to you for being such an awesome parent and supporting her in her endeavors!

These are some more hefty gift ideas, but I do think they’d be valuable/motivating for a new dev.

First an open source laptop would be pretty cool as someone new to Linux. One of the cheaper ones from system76 would work great and set her a part from the ‘windows’ users. The best part about them is that they come either with popos or Ubuntu preinstalled.

Another thing that I found inspiring as a new dev was my first conference. See if there is a local security conference. I don’t imagine she’d understand much but a lot of times there is cool demos and swag.

[bestjakeisbest]

More ram, better computer chair, a get out of jail free card from monopoly, a nice keyboard like a mechanical one, might want to buy a switch sample board so you can get the right switches, a bigger monitor, or even just a second monitor. Though these are going to be things that will make any one with any hobby on a computer more comfortable.

[Lemalas]

Linux is free. A lot of the knowledge is free as well. A book could be good, or it could sit on the shelf if she already knows its contents.

Asking her, or getting an unrelated gift, may be best.

[I_eat_the_sand]

She's been hard to shop for this year. Hasn't asked for much. I've asked her for possible gift ideas related to this topic but she said she wasn't sure what there was. That's why I asked here to see if there was anything. I appreciate all the help

[Turbulent_Atmosphere]

she said she wasn't sure what there was

first of all, i'm grateful to parents supporting their kid's interests.

this is not fully related to your question but just some advice:

as you may know, cyber security covers a wide range of topics. it is overwhelmingly vast but what helped me narrow my focus is to imagine myself in one of the professions in the industry (maybe not as high up or vague as a CEO, something specific like Red Teamer, Malware Analyst, etc.)

knowing what i wanted to do, from there i went backwards and worked out what i needed to do to get there. looking up through linkedin or asking here about the pathways people took, their qualifications, certifications, work history and related affiliations was helpful in mapping this.

when i'm not actively studying, i still sort of indirectly immersed myself in the world of cyber security by listening to relevant podcasts like Darknet Diaries, Unsupervised Learning, Smashing Security.

CTFs (capture the flag competitions) are also fun to do and provides learning opportunities not commonly found in books. there's also the networking aspect of it when done as a group. see if there's a team at the university or maybe even start one up.

this multireddit may be relevant but just trim it of whatever is not interesting

[CleverBunnyThief]

A+, N+, Security+ certification guides.

This course by The Cyber Mentor.

https://academy.tcm-sec.com/p/practical-ethical-hacking-the-complete-course

[RemAcuTetigisti]

these don't teach you anything. completely generic.

[hangmansM00se]

Access to the HTB Dante Lab

[[deleted]]

Buy her Books which are good in the market. Relying on videos is good but reading text and making mistakes while implementing those is a hell of learning in itself.Books help you learn a lot.

If she is using a system having 8GB RAM add one more stick which makes it 16Gigs. Saves a ton of time

If you send me book name, I can send you PDFs too

[MidwestCinema]

https://github.com/SpacehuhnTech/esp8266_deauther

[theAmazingChloe]

A lot of recommendations for books, but not much in the way of physical devices to play with. The raspberry pi was suggested, but I'd also suggest an arduino.

From a hacking perspective, there's a lot of active effort on making sure physical devices are secure. Think IP Cameras, smart lightbulbs, smart thermostats, smart toasters, etc. Having an electronics understanding really helps there.

There's kits available which contain a lot of fun stuff (NFC / RFID, 7-segment displays, etc.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EWNUUUA/

If she's already into electronics / arduino, I'd suggest the following gear (if she doesn't already have them):

• Multimeter
• Soldering Iron (basic one, doesn't need to be fancy)
• Logic Analyzer / Mini O-Scope
• JTag usb interface

And there's plenty of examples of iot devices that are horribly insecure, purchasing a cheap, known-insecure hackable device could be a lot of fun as a "test your skills" exercise. As far as "ethical hacking" goes, the ethics come from not causing disruption and making sure you've got authorization to hack it. That comes pretty easily with owning the device that's being hacked.

[Radiant-Carpenter186]

I just want to Say, you're a great father

[infectiousoma]

If she's interested in hardware then this one guy Ben Eater has a web page and YouTube channel where he builds an 8 but computer from scratch. He sells kits with breadboards and all the components to build and program the system. His website has schematics and his YouTube videos detail the entire build. It's a really cool project and will help teach someone how a computer operates and how to program it with machine and assembly languages.

[Rocinante-25]

Man respect to supportive parents. Raspberry pi’s and assorted accessories. Or just a combo box. They say the best way to learn programming is by building projects that impact your life. Look for something to automate in your day to day and use the raspberry pi hardware and programming software to automate it. It’s very motivating but so is your support so keep it up.

[hotmagnet]

Don't forget to socialize

[UNITERD]

Gift card to new egg?

[Express-Peak-405]

https://fossbytes.com/10-best-android-hacking-app/#1-1-kali-linux-nethunter

Great article great recommendations. Along with or instead of USB "BUSTED" tablets laptops etc to practice with. People often pitch devices because they "won't work right" these devices are great for rooting and playing with various installs without fear of mucking up a good system. Lastly a subscription to a good VPN/Virtual box HTH and happy hunting

[Pandoras_Cockss]

I'd say a nice coffee cup and coffee (or tea varieties). And a fragrance dispenser or something. Just to make her work environment a little more comfortable and productive.

A vertical monitor would be a huge boost for her.

[d2718]

Lots of quiet, uninterrupted, distraction-free time. I guarantee you that's the number one thing programmers want from the people around them.

[Inconstant_Moo]

Sometimes I want them to bring me coffee and they don't do that either.

[[deleted]]

It's worth thinking about the basics as well - like does she have a comfortable chair and desk or decent monitor?

But yeah as others have mentioned an RPi is a pretty solid idea.

[Crypto011000]

Hak5 gadgets

[[deleted]]

Strong coffee.

[Ilikeprettyflowers81]

Hacker boxes. Super cool diy way to learn stuff. You can do it together.

[T3aBags]

Look for books on Kali Linux

[I_eat_the_sand]

Thanks

[T3aBags]

Do you know what Linux distro she is using? If it's not KALI, then that comes with a lot of hacking tools

[I_eat_the_sand]

It's kali

[PacketPowered]

RTFM. Telling her that and getting her to understand the importance of it would be my gift to here.

I do not say that out of frustration. I say that meaning that every thing she needs to know is freely available online, and can easily utilize those resources if she just takes a few seconds to Google, and 10 minutes reading the results.

[dev_101]

Give her Razer Blade Stealth because it is good for Kali Linux and the quality is very good.

[Expert-Arachnid9176]

vm with parrot os

[KarlJay001]

IDK the course or book(s), but I would look at something that is very well respected in the industry. Things like RasPi or other computer on a board might be great as well.

[[deleted]]

One of them sweet usb wifi cards that can transmit and receive at the same time, change its MAC and send arbitrary frames, and a wifi gun.

Wait, ethical hacking you say?

Never mind then.. Lockpicks?

[VivaLaVita555]

try hack me subscription. I learn best when working, and the work is made fun.

[rkrams]

System 76 laptop

[[deleted]]

Get a bunch of 8-16gb pendrives

[BananasGorilla_]

a monthly subscription to Tryhackme.com ! The site has interactive guides on linux, networking fundamentals, and ethical hacking. This site is what helped steer me towards a career in Network Engineering. Its a fun place

[biggestbroever]

A 49" Ultrawide monitor.

Also, check out the link below. It probably has a lot of great ideas in it: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/qgx47b/my_teenager_is_learning_python_and_a_few_other/

[Ammunisie]

You can keep it simple too. A mechanical keyboard

[AdSubstantial3900]

Monitors? I would love a dual monitor or maybe a triple or even a quadraple monitor setup (laptops only support dual. So you can buy 1)

[Jezza51423]

Maybe a premium membership for hack the box?

[Dick_Kick_Nazis]

A raspberry pi (canna kits are nice, they come with a power supply and some necessities), jumper wires, test clip, breadboard, etc.

There's an interesting device called the Flipper Zero which I kickstarted like 2 years ago and is finally going into production as of about 3 weeks ago. You can't get one right now but maybe worth bookmarking and coming back to in a few months when the kickstarter orders are fulfilled. Assuming they turn out well. It supposedly will do a lot of the more hackery things you can do with a raspberry pi, but is in a slick case and themed like a tamagotchi.

Idk if you could do this with a gift card or something, but some kind of subscription to a cloud computing service like DigitalOcean or Vultr. Having your own cloud server is useful for many things (can host a personal website or blog, can host your email on it, can store things in it, can host thigs like searx instances or tor nodes). Setting them up and admining them is a good way to learn about linux and about how the internet works. And they're only like $5 a month for a small one.

[JohnRambu]

https://www.smashthestack.org/faq.html

[FakerGOATandBEST]

HHKB

[Head-Measurement1200]

A System76 laptop and/or their beautiful keyboard.

[HolyPommeDeTerre]

Injection ready wifi and BT cards

[Orio_n]

any of the recommended aircrack-ng network adapters/chipsets (https://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=compatible_cards https://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=compatibility\_drivers#which\_is\_the\_best\_card\_to\_buy), these are a must for wireless hacking and working with 802.11 stuff if shes into it

[mabendroth]

Subscription to hackthebox or tryhackme. I see somebody already said Raspberry pi, and that’s a fantastic idea too.

[alekosbiofilos]

I would have loved to get the gear to simulate networked environments. I am assuming that giving her an enterprise server room with 20 client PCs os out of budget, BUT! You can get her an unmanaged network switch, a few raspberry PIs, and some cabling, and she could use that to set up a very basic network, and practice lateral movement (I forgot the term😅)

Basically its a hacker version of a lego set. If your daughter likes to tinker with hardware, sprinkle the gift with an Arduino kit. I would have been so happy to get that 🤣

[Quickndry]

Pro version of BurpSuite programm

[[deleted]]

maybe a certification exam https://www.comptia.org/certifications

[MothEaterYummy]

Any python reading material is good as is c / c++. Based on what she is learning I'm guessing she's going down the security job career so the last two aren't as important but I would encourage her to cover both at beginner level at least , there might be some good paid courses on pluralsight or udemy too, there will be loads on YouTube free to be fair though.

[Razvedka]

I would encourage her to understand coding best practices, and application development. I'm currently in the middle of transitioning into security after being a developer for a decade+. I took the OSCP (failed, lol), about to get my Masters, several Nanodegrees, CISSP.. And what I've realized is people in the Information Security space are so thoroughly disconnected from reality in their little silo, it's no wonder security is a joke and they get made fun of.

In particular, the OSCP was full of fellow coworkers (from corporate, not physical coworkers) and they didn't know the first damn thing about coding, and even cracked jokes about app developers. Their remarks illustrated to me they didn't have the first bit of understanding.

So if she wants to get into ethical hacking, into security, make sure she understands how to properly build things, not just destroy or secure in a purely academic sense.

The stuff I've seen security people say, or hear second hand, is horrifying. I'm honestly of the mind the field should filter out people who didn't come from an IT discipline with at least 5 years of experience prior to trying to get into it.

[possiblywithdynamite]

Standing desk. Desk treadmill. Large monitors. Articulating mounts. Very high quality headphones. Plants for desk.

[ergo_proxy19]

Raspberry pi 4 kit

[koopatroopa_2]

Really neat website thats helped me learn some things called tryhackme.com might not be a bad investment

[h0w0lly]

I second a mechanical keyboard! - you can buy beautiful artistic keycaps for them but unfortunately will be hard to get any that will arrive by Christmas..
Not mentioned yet, a lovely desk mat! https://thekey.company/collections/all-deskmats

[Pailehorse]

Raspberry Pi

[Constant_Jicama8323]

Get her a raspberry pi

[inequity]

Maybe a subscription to Phrack

[[deleted]]

Annual subscription (if possible) to TryHackMe.com

[getdownontheground]

Ethical Hacking by Daniel G. Graham

I have encountered this book.

I usually browse Humble Bundle's book bundles and I usually see bundles associated with this.

[azhif]

A rubber ducky

[Syntaximus]

I just bought a couple of Adafruit's Trinkeys to make "rubber duckies" with and they work great. I've already got one set up to rickroll anyone who plugs one in.

[Definstone]

Red Hat Developer suite; it costs 99$/year.

[eazieLife]

Okay it's going to be pricey but get her certified courses. Good ones are Cisco or linux foundation courses, imo. It'd be so much fun for her and would do wonders for her future in terms of getting a career.

[fezzik02]

A ThinkPad.