Ethical Hacker Community Forums

Hello All,
I'm new to the EH forums here. I'm 22 years old and I have a fulltime job as a helpdesk employee, and a few months of experience. In my free time I'm finishing up studying for my MCDST. I thinking of doing some other certifications, but I need some expert advice to help me out. The reason I joined this forum is that I want to end up in IT security. I know MS certifications don't mean everything cuz they are just multiple choice questions, but I'm wanting to know which certifications are going to help me get on my way towards learning about security. Once I have gained enough knowledge and experience I want to follow the CEH book and take the exam. What would those with experience advice me to do if I want to reach this goal of becoming a Ethical Hacker? I've been advise by someone that I could do the following:


"These are the exams that you'll need:

70-270 or 70-620 (the client exam)
70-290 (server exam)
70-291 (network exam, strongly recommend you do your Network+ before attempting this one)

Then you'll need 2 security exams:
The Comptia Security+ (recommended) &
70-299 (imo the easiest of MS security exams)"


I know I'll need to learn how to use linux too, any advise for that? Anything else missing or anyone has anything to add or comments. please do. If you don't understand what I mean, please ask me. thanks in advance for all your advice and your time.
















thanks for your time :)

For linux there are a few (relatively) vendor-neutral certs such as comptia's linux+ and LPI's level 1-3 certs. There are also a bunch of vendor-specific ones for redhat, suse, etc...

whoa- is this the dozen'th post with this title? anyway, welcome to eh-net. i won't be able to give you advice on the hacker part, but for a good linux beginner's distro, ubuntu is the best. it is very easy to use, and comes with an introduction to the CLI. you can even order a free cd from the site.

I'll also second iSmith on ubuntu. It's the distro I started out with and it was very easy to use.

if the next "help me get into IT security" post doesnt start with "so after reading the other posts on the subject..."

we'll i dont know what, but it probably wont be nice.  wanna get into security. start friggin reading and using the search option.

Ok we were all new at one point. With that being said, welcome to the party. Chris and iSmith both have point and that these forums do have a weath of information. Now I know, who has time to sit and go through hundereds of posts even with the aid of a search function. Now my advice on the whole subject of getting into the field...Get a mentor. This can be a friend already in the field a coworker, your boss, whoever. They can really guide you. Next, be familiar with a lot of stuff. You don't need to be a guru or anything, but most places want you to have the basics like and understanding of how the TCP handshake works or the OSI model. Beyond that, they can teach you and train you. As far a certs go, they will get you and interview. It is up to you after that. I was lucky and met my mentor before he retired from the military at my last assignment and he help guide me down this path. So think long and hard about your goals and were you want to be, Just remember with MS certs, they do expire as the OS get retired. Good luck.