Reverse-engineering/career?
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Forum Name: Careers & Salary
Forum Discription: Discuss career issues, salaries and more.
URL: http://certcities.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?tid=5494
Printed Date: 14 October 2007 at 5:43pm
Topic: Reverse-engineering/career?
Posted by: squishydonut
Subject: Reverse-engineering/career?
Date Posted: 07 October 2007 at 8:41pm
I have a stronger background in programming than I do in networking/IT. A strong passion of mine has always been exploits/reverse engineering, but I have always been unsure of future prospects for jobs. I enjoy both programming and networking along with various aspects of IT. I'm just not sure of possible paths to proceed.
I know of a few companies that pay small fees for new exploits (under the title of "security researcher"), along with Mcafee, Symantec, etc that have full-time positions to research new threats. I've also read about some that "consult" for companies doing the same. That is very appealing to me.
Does anyone here have any background or advice on such a field? I know there's a gap between exploits and lets say CCIE with a focus on design, but I wanted to throw this out there for the collective experience of everyone here.
Thanks for reading everyone. |
Replies:
Posted by: M0nst3r
Date Posted: 08 October 2007 at 10:34am
| The CIA and military has positions for specialists in electronic warfare. |
Posted by: BosonMichael
Date Posted: 08 October 2007 at 10:44am
M0nst3r wrote:
| The CIA and military has positions for specialists in electronic warfare. |
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As a former electronic warfare analyst, I can definitively say that creating exploits was not one of my job responsibilities.
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BosonMichael (formerly TMichael)
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92
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Posted by: M0nst3r
Date Posted: 08 October 2007 at 8:35pm
| LOL, interesting...I guess our military gets pretty creative when it comes to assigning job titles. What does an electronic warfare analyst do? |
Posted by: squishydonut
Date Posted: 08 October 2007 at 9:18pm
| I remember watching a documentary on televison about the Air Force having a job doing that sort of work (offensively.) I know the jobs are out there somewhere, I just can't see them as clearly compared to INFOSEC stuff. |
Posted by: BosonMichael
Date Posted: 09 October 2007 at 4:14am
I was a 98C, and my "full" job title was "Electronic Warfare Signals Intelligence Cryptologic Analyst/Linguist" They've recently dropped the Electronic Warfare portion of the job title, but it's still cached in Google if you search for 98c, 98g, 98x.
As it's a classified job, the most I am allowed to say is what is cached from the Army's Web site, http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:hnzlg5jCDRMJ:www.goarmy .com/JobDetail.do%3Fid%3D345+%22electronic+warfare%22+s ite:goarmy.com+-site:forums.goarmy.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl =us - here :
Quote:
Learning what foreign governments and forces are involved in helps our military experts better plan our nation's defense. That's why the Electronic Warfare/Cryptologic Operations Specialist is most valuable. Whether gaining information from intercepted foreign radio transmissions or translated foreign language newspapers, the information gained becomes the information that produces combat, strategic and tactical intelligence reports. Therefore, it's very important that some members of the Army be able to read and understand the many languages of the world.
As an Electronic Warfare/Cryptologic Operations Specialist, you could work in locations all over the world, including in Consulates offices, Embassies, and even in the White House Communications Agency.
Job training for an Electronic Warfare/Cryptologic Operations career consists of nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic Soldiering skills, and then language proficiency training for six to 12 months at the Defense Language Institute (DLI).
If you're already proficient in a foreign language, you could qualify as a skill linguist and enlist under the Army Civil Acquired Skills Program (ACASP). This program allows individuals to progress through training and rank faster.
Upon completion of DLI, enlistees are assigned to one of the following specific 98-series MOS's, and attend AIT (Advanced Individual Training) for that specific job:
Signals Intelligence Analyst (98C)
Cryptologic Linguist (98G) |
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Looks like the Army has changed the 98C and 98G series. If I was still in, I'd be classified as either a Signals Intelligence Analyst 35N ( http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=174 - link ) or a Cryptographic Linguist 35P ( http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=97 - link ), since I did both jobs.
Here are all the IT careers in the Army: http://www.goarmy.com/JobCatDetail.do?id=4&sd=true - link
None of them involve creating exploits against the enemy, so if that's what you're looking for, you probably won't find it in the US Armed Services. Companies like McAfee, Trend, and Symantec would hire to defend against those threats, if you've already got the experience to do the job.
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BosonMichael (formerly TMichael)
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92
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Posted by: cfc1888
Date Posted: 09 October 2007 at 1:35pm
..: The opinion that follows, is just that, an opinion, I'm no expert :..
There are a ton of different security type jobs out there. You'll get best the response from those forums. I think it would be hard to get a Security job, with a specialization in exploits/reverse engineering, unless you have a jack-of-all-trades skill set to back it up. Lets face it, security is a huge domain, and for a security professional, you need to know a little of everything (or alot).
If your dead set on reverse engineering, then create your own 0-day exploit and submit to a security team that interests you, one that you can further develop your hacker-fu skills. Your gonna need some seriously off-da-hook coding skills to make it. Good luck in your pursuits. I was trying to find the the link for an article I read awhile back, I think on securityfocus, but all I could find was this:
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1779
http://www.cybersecurityinstitute.biz/gettingstarted.htm
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cfc1888 |
Posted by: BosonMichael
Date Posted: 09 October 2007 at 3:42pm
Good stuff, CFC! :)
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BosonMichael (formerly TMichael)
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92 |
Posted by: squishydonut
Date Posted: 09 October 2007 at 4:40pm
Indeed, a tall hill to climb. Thank you all.
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