I know a guy who's son was a candidate in the Navy SEAL program. Long story short...he was injured during the training and could not finish. As a "consolation" they offered him the opportunity to intern at Fort Mead in Computer Security. He had no previous computer experience, but they took him through a program that he completed, and now he is in the private sector working as a computer security analyst. I've talked to his father to see if he could talk to me about how they trained him, or maybe give me a reading list of the books he used, but to no avail. Has anybody here been through this program, and willing to share some resources? I am just a "lowly Windows admin", and have installed Security Onion in my place of work. Everything looks like a security threat when I view the info, and I've taken a few classes, but they are all meant for techs with a "certain level" of infosec experience that I do not posess. Even the "Intrusion Prevention Fundamentals" (from CiscoPress) expects intermediate or advanced levels of experience depending on whether you are an network analyst, architect, or engineer. What books are out there from absolute beginners that have no real Linux/Unix experince, but want to learn how to read pcaps and get into the infosec field?
Computer security is significantly more complicated than being, say, a networking professional or programmer. There's simply so many things that can go wrong that you need a ton of experience and know how to get a legit job. If you're still young, you can go to college and get a master's in comp sci and work in that field for a few years before even thinking about it. Don't expect that you can just get a few certifications and get a job easily.
Thanks for the reply. "If you're still young"...sadly, no. I'm not so much worried about certs and a job, I simply want to learn how to use the IDS that I've installed at my place of employment. I'm just wondering what the "blueprint" is that is used to develop those skills from the ground up, a reading list.
