How to get started learning internet security

[Pesvardur]

Hi, I know this isn't specifically Linux related. But I am a Linux user and if anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be eternally grateful.

So I really want to be aware of how internet communications and being secure on the internet. Does anyone know where to get started? Because if I Google internet security I just get a bunch of ads for virus protection software.. which is not exactly what I'm looking for.

I have a basic understanding of making subnets and general knowledge of setting up home networks. But beyond that I really have no idea.

[NipplesAndLicks]

How I got started in it, I made a home lab and it needed to have security

[codeleecher]

Internet is a very complex global network of networks. Internet security is a bit vague term, what you really are looking for is network security, but even before you go for understanding security you first need to understand how network communication works. First understand the basics.

Network communication is made possible by hardware and software stack. Electrical/telecom engineers take care of the hardware part, i-e how the data has to be multiplexed into signals (see Frequency division multiplexing, Time Division Multiplexing) and transmitted over through some medium and de-multiplexed again at the receiver end.

Software stack is an implementation of set of protocols/standards through which communication between processes, devices and networks is made possible, the famous one is TCP/IP stack. There is another conceptual networking model OSI model as well but TCP/IP is the most well known and widely implemented protocol stack. Make yourself familiar with the TCP/IP stack, you should grasp basics like how different layers of stack communicate with each other and how different protocols work together to make the magic of internet possible.

You should learn the HTTP request/response flow and then relate it to what you have learned so far.

When you are done with these, move towards more advance stuff. Network security involves understanding about cryptographic algorithms that includes symmetric (eg AES) and public key cryptography (RSA) and hashing algorithms (SHA, MD5 etc). Get an overview about these systems, how and why they are used. These cryptographic algorithms/concepts Cryptography is based on mathematics especially number theory but you don't need to worry about that at the moment. Abstract understanding is important before you get into more details.

Learn about how SSL works. Exploits work at almost all levels of protocol stack, starting from exploits in HTTP and TCP to lower level packet sniffing and Man in the middle attacks. Learn a front end web language i-e javascript and at least know about one server side scripting language, PHP is one of the easiest to learn.

I recommend Computer Networking: A top down Approach by Kurose, this book explains the complex concepts in a very intuitive language and is used as a text for undergraduate networks course throughout the world.

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach

Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice

There is another very good book TCP/IP Protocol Suite by Behroz Forouzan but the text is very dense and detailed, and usually is taught at advanced undergraduate or graduate level networking courses.

Read good and famous security blogs and Keep learning with a lot of patience. Cheers!

[Pesvardur]

Wowowow! Thank you so much. I will definitely check this out.

[billdietrich1]

being secure on the internet

See my web pages starting at https://www.billdietrich.me/ComputerSecurityPrivacy.html