Hi Michael,
Welcome to EH.net. I'm probably the least qualified person to answer your question but it looks like you're new here and I didn't want to leave you with the impression we aren't a helpful bunch here.

This is only what I've heard so take it with a pound of salt. First, getting a security clearance is a big expense for a company and unless they really, really want you, it's unlikely you'll get one. It seems most of those overseas jobs go to former military people that already have the clearance and overseas experience.

I believe there is a website (was it usajobs.com?) that specializes in that type of stuff. Also try Halliburton, Bechtel, etc. An hour or two of google searching should provide some good answers. I seem to remember it was 6 months tours/ 1 month off. From what I've seen posted, the qualifications are very specific, working in technologies I've never heard of.

Now that I've probably discouraged you (sorry), good luck with the job search.

How long did the exam take you? Just curious as I was one of the last few. I took 2 breaks to try and keep fresh during the exam.

Before I found prey, I had a script that went to whatismyip.com, grepped the ip and time and then emailed it to me everytime the laptop booted. All of these measures could be easily circumvented. Any thief with half a brain could make security measures useless but then again, if they had half a brain they wouldn't be out stealing laptops, would they? Thus, prey is enough for me.

No problem. Glad I could help.

Do a search here for lockpicking to see the discussion on cutaway locks to learn lockpicking. You don't need a book. Lockpicking is 95% experience/ 5% knowledge.

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I hesitate to bring this up due to the obvious security considerations but I guess terrorists don't spend much time on ethicalhacker.

www.securitytube.net/video/2199

www.securitytube.net/video/2249

 Sort of. Not our company but the sites I'm sent to everyday (their companies maint. dept.).

One more thing and then I'll shut up.

I mentioned in another thread I'm reading up on wireless lan controllers because that's what companies seem to want WLAN engineers to know. Cisco uses LWAPP and now CAPWAP. I wanted to see what my new favorite product (UBNT's Unifi) uses- capwap or lwapp.

It turns out it's neither- it uses TR-069...the same protocol that DSL modems use. AHHHH! So now after I read these thousand pages from Cisco, I have to read up on yet-another-protocol (in addition to doing the SWSE at the same time and working with the networksims stuff and a full time job).

I'm already seeing crosseyed but I gotta admit, I'm an info junkie and it is a lot of fun....complicated as hell but a lotta fun. Oh yeah, maybe then I'll get to the VMware security course I won.

Anyway bob, maybe this will help.
http://www.breakingpointsystems.com/community/blog/protocol-reverse-engineering-with-the-breakingpoint-storm-ctm-custom-application-toolkit/

I pick locks sometimes but not as a pentester. I'm in a situation where maintenance departments keep changing the locks and sometimes they can't find the key.

Be sure to let us know what the updates turn out to be and whether the tool set includes any interesting or not well known stuff. I've had a lot of fun with it so far...it's really helping me remember how to do all those Cisco commands again.

I was trying to figure that out myself. It looked like the toolset was the only difference. If anyone gets the full package please post whether the extra $20 is worth it. Maybe some special tools not usually seen?

No, they are all asking about my Cisco experience as that seems to be what they are looking for in the jobs I'm applying for- WLAN admin/designer (that's why I'm busy relearning all that stuff).

I imagine once they see the WCNA cert they just check that off in their long list of requirements. I've turned down several jobs because they were contractual and they wouldn't guarantee me a long enough period. The wireless security jobs in this economy are few and far between so I've had to start looking at admin/design jobs.

Back when dsl was just coming out, I was an installer for the phone company. I don't know whether there was additional identification or not going on but I ran the wire in the CO to the dslam and created a path through the cross-connects directly to your house. No security was needed as far as that was concerned because if you didn't pay your bill we'd just untie your line in the CO and you would be gone. I don't know what went on after the dslam as that was not part of my job.

In addition, DSL is very susceptible to interference on the wire. It's possible you don't have a clean line and at a certain time of day, you're getting crapped on by some issue. As sil pointed out, it could oversubscription as well. ISPs work on an oversubscription model because service would be more expensive if everyone used all of their bandwidth all the time. The ISP I work for monitors how much bandwidth is used overall and at what times in order to determine how much to charge (and how much to limit) for your bulk connection.

It's also possible if you are on a switched network, i.e. the same broadcast domain as someone with a virus (or many with a virus), you could be getting slammed with crap. As sil suggested, the way to test this is with a packet capture before and during the problem so you can analyze what traffic you're seeing and what it is doing.

I've read the book cover to cover. It's like a cookbook where the recipe to attack wireless is laid out step by step. I plan on getting the kindle version as well so I'll have it as a reference guide whenever I need to remember some step or command.

I got time to mess with it for a little while this afternoon and so far it's pretty awesome. I got the $58 bundle (one year) and it includes this:

• Router, switch, PIX/ASA, Wireless, ASDM, VPN and SDM simulators.
• Google book integration.
• Cisco command/term/concept search.
• CCNA.
• CCNA ICND,CCNP SWITCH,CCNP ROUTE,CCNP TSHOOT.
• CCNP: CCNP1 (Adv Routing - BCSI).
• CCNP2 (Remote Access).
• CCNP3 (BCMSN).
• CCNP4 (Debug).
• CCNP5 (ISCW).
• CCNP6 (ONT).
• CCNP Security SECURE (New!).
• Wireless.
• SNPA (PIX/ASA).
• Security.
• Host (Windows/UNIX).
• Cisco Network Security 1.
• Cisco Network Security 2.
• Router Additional.
• Switch Additional.
• CCVP (Voice).
• MPLS.
• CCVP (Voice Gateway).
• CCNA Wireless (with new WLC and ADU).
• CCNA Security.
• CCSP (SNRS).
• CCNA Voice.
• ASDM.
• SDM (Alpha release).
• Juniper JUNOS.
• CCDA.
• EEM.
• Ethical Hacking (New!).
• Check Point CCSA (New!).
• A+ (New!).
• CISSP (New!).
• Security+ (New!)
• Amazon AWS - EC2 elastic cloud and S3 data storage (New!).
• CUCM Demo (New!)
• Microsoft .NET.
• Series of integrated lectures on security, wireless and switching.
• Fun activities.
• Full range of in-package and on-line tests.
• 70,000 test questions.

AND a bunch of books. There were 6 or 7 just on CCNA.
It has you go through a series of challenges where you have to type in the correct commands on the different emulators to complete the task. This is mixed in with test questions and videos. For such a tiny price, it's really awesome. I haven't even got to the Ethical Hacking section yet I was so busy playing the Cisco WLC stuff.

There's a demo you can download on the site to try it out and some videos about the different demos http://networksims.com/emulators_demo2.html

It has different topologies you can use as well (different routers, switches, number of hosts, etc).
The only bad thing I can see so far is you can only use it on one computer.

I'll post more when I get a chance to really look over everything...it's got months worth of reading.