CEH class

I just finished a week long class on computer security. it was called CEH, certified ethicial hacking. i cannot tell you how much fun this class was. mindboggling, and freakout scary. still, I tried to approach the class with enough curiousity to obtain a beneficial return. It was easy to do with no distractions. the whole class, all guys. and besides, we were pretty much the classic nerds. i loved it. all we were missing were star wars posters and klingon speak. it was like an homage to weird al yankovich.
first off. all systems have flaws and can be vulnerable. updates are important, but seriously need
to keep on top of them. there are so many ways around security. that is the whole gist of the class. learn how to hack in order to make our internal systems stronger. keyloggers can be on anything.during class we learned that wired keyboards can be hacked from over 20 meters away.
second. everything i thought i knew about security, so off. we were literally given thousands of tools to work with, and only a week to learn. i've got my free time taken care of for a while. i don't mind it is interesting to see what would happen. first words from our instructor, you can't stop a hacker. all you can really do is slow him down. so comforting.
third. never ever give anyone your information. no matter what. either through social engineering, or through phishing sites, people will use your information to get money and whatnot. on the net, you can't be trusting, just no way, if you are paranoid good. let that guide you. you can't take the chance. all it takes is one opportunity for them and they will rip your life apart. also, if you don't have a shredder get one. dumpster divers will get anything on you, chances are they already do. but shredd all documents, all those credit card offers you throw away. are treasure for identity thieves. GET A SHREDDER. on that note, make sure you get credit protection and you regularly check your credit activity. don't be nieve enough to think you can't get taken to the cleaners.
fourth. our teacher rocked. he knew his stuff and he would throw in things not in the books. he had alot of experience and effectively answered our questions. on that note, i feel guilty for infecting his computer. let me explain. i asked him if he knew about the antivirus 2008 infecting software. it can be accessed a number of ways. he got curious and was looking for screen shots of the software, blam. he caught it. and it started going through his system. while we were in class! all he was looking at were pictures and it infected him. sometimes that is all it takes. technically it wasn't my fault, but i did give him the idea so i admit partial responsibility.
fifth. hackers are soo cool. good and bad. they know their stuff. good hackers, you often hear about in the news. the best hackers though, you never hear about. they are so good at covering their tracks. you never knew they were there. according to our teacher, everyone asks questions about the motives of hackers, their intent to hack. there are too many answers for that. i'm sure they have their own agendas. most are different. some like chaos, others want money. others like the challenge. some even are just evil. i still think they are cool for perfecting a craft that has so many options. it's like the last great untapped battlefront.
lastly. having a week off of work, but in class, got me behind on my projects. but i so enjoyed it. creating viruses, breaking systems. last day we were given a machine to hack into. most of us did. it was fun. still. i think most people would be surprised at how unsecure their own computers can be. it takes so much time to get this stuff down. but if you think you are safe, you need to think again. you probably have a compromised system, you just don't know it yet.