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YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

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Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#91

Post by bamboozled »

wiseleo wrote: post #69
FillardMillmore wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, if any, advice would you offer someone who would like to begin learning about security today?

Start with understanding Unix file permission system and the meaning of /etc/services. It will snowball from there. You need to be proficient in Unix operating systems to have a knowledge base.

With all due respect, the question was about more modern times. I feel like this was better advice in the 90s and early 2000s. It's not like knowing those things is bad, I just don't know how applicable it is now.

Today the scope is far too big and there are far too many different hacking disciplines now. The advice above was probably more suited to a time when people used to be granted shell access to university computers. We live in a world where people don't even run web applications in on servers anymore, rather containers hosted in cloud platforms.

That said, you really should develop a sound understanding of how computers work at a low level, it doesn't have to be perfect; but it helps you understand how even modern systems can be flawed (under all the shiny cloud marketing, they're computers after all). I would start with doing a course like: https://www.nand2tetris.org/.

Once that foundational knowledge is understood, learn how computer networks work (IP, TCP, UDP), network stacks and then higher level protocols like HTTP, HTTP(s) and other layer 7 protocols. Learning about databases is good too, basic SQL skills are useful.

By this stage you will probably bee having too much fun building new things using all the knowledge you've acquired rather than breaking other peoples stuff; Then again I guess it can still be fun to experiment with that too.

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#92

Post by r_singh »

thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #7

This is the consequence of monopolies. Before YouTube gobbled up the world there were great, niche video sites ran by fans of the coolest things. They are mostly gone now. It is sad. The web really used to be an adventure. I miss that part of the internet. You felt like you found these secret underground worlds where people were really into something. Now it’s different. Maybe what we have now it what is needed for c…

This resonates with me so much.

On a slightly unrelated note: When these to-be monopolies are just starting and raising dollars, their service and everything is on point. Once their too big to have competitors, there is absolutely no way of even contacting them (even if you're in the clear and they're wrong). Customer service from these tech monopolies really makes me feel like we're all cattle.

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#93

Post by input_sh »

r_singh wrote: post #92
thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #7

This is the consequence of monopolies. Before YouTube gobbled up the world there were great, niche video sites ran by fans of the coolest things. They are mostly gone now. It is sad. The web really used to be an adventure. I miss that part of the internet. You felt like you found these secret underground worlds where people were really into something. Now it’s different. Maybe what we have now it what is needed for c…

This resonates with me so much. On a slightly unrelated note: When these to-be monopolies are just starting and raising dollars, their service and everything is on point. Once their too big to have competitors, there is absolutely no way of even contacting them (even if you're in the clear and they're wrong). Customer service from these tech monopolies really makes me feel like we're all cattle.

If you have, let's say, a billion users, each of which can report stuff, and have some algorithm that weeds out 90% of bogus reports, how big would your customer support team need to be to handle the remaining 10% in a reasonable time span?

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#94

Post by r_singh »

input_sh wrote: post #93
r_singh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This resonates with me so much. On a slightly unrelated note: When these to-be monopolies are just starting and raising dollars, their service and everything is on point. Once their too big to have competitors, there is absolutely no way of even contacting them (even if you're in the clear and they're wrong). Customer service from these tech monopolies really makes me feel like we're all cattle.

If you have, let's say, a billion users, each of which can report stuff, and have some algorithm that weeds out 90% of bogus reports, how big would your customer support team need to be to handle the remaining 10% in a reasonable time span?

I get this argument about having millions of users reporting stuff. But just have a look at Facebook and Google's balance sheet, and the figures that other non profitable monopolies raise. However big the support team needs to be should be their problem, or rather part of their plan. And if they don't have enough money for a big enough team (or just don't prioritise support enough), then honestly, I don't think it's truly scalable or sustainable. And eventually we as consumers will learn. This whole tech pump and dump (or promise something and change it later when it's time to profit[1]) wave is new, and we're just beginning to learn how companies change once they have enough leverage.

I'm sure if they don't take customer support seriously, they will pay a price for it in the long run.

Would just like to clarify, that I don't think expecting personal support for non-paid services is reasonable. But as a paid customer (for e.g. of Uber), one should at least be able to call an IVR. But these cos. deliberately make it harder for you to get their numbers.

[1]for e.g. how youtube was free speech and niche artists, how google would get you to the result the quickest

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#95

Post by xapata »

spookthesunset wrote: post #75
pjbk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which leads to their production becoming better and better, which leads to a better product, but less innovation. "Better" in the sense that they are more polished and edited, but unfortunately that means more filtered, targeted and biased. There is an intrinsic, authentic value in raw productions that gets lost or doesn't exist in the former.

So they all “sold out” to reach a bigger audience? Man! I used to like that band before they became popular. Now they just suck! Sheesh...

Hey, there's a bit of truth to the joke.

> unfortunately that means more filtered, targeted and biased

Usually, appealing to a mass-market means less targeted/biased, more generic. The hipsters always want their bands to stay weird.

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#97

Post by Scoundreller »

bitL wrote: post #19
jakoblorz wrote: post #3

That’s really sad! Censoring informative content should never be part of any corporate strategy, especially in countries having freedom in their constitution. Have a look at PeerTube ( https://joinpeertube.org ) if you don’t know it yet.

Self-hosting PeerTube is trivial. So is self-hosting NextCloud (DropBox alternative). So is self-hosting PixelFed (Instagram alternative). So is self-hosting Mastodon, RocketChat, Code-Server (VSCode) etc. Rent a $5/month VPS and have 100% control over what you publish and federate with like-minded as you like. At some point those services will support 90% of all monopoly features and 99% features you care about. If…

Now launch a search engine in front of it. What’s old is new again.

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#99

Post by freyr »

diodesign wrote: post #11

Is this actually happening? Because it makes little sense when you consider that YouTube-parent Google is sponsoring security education videos. See this GCP-sponsored LiveOverflow video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-P9USG6kLs Maybe Google's killing off dodgy script kiddie vids, and leaving quality content up (and I mean the rest of LiverOverflow's videos et al, not just the paid-for stuff.)

If you read the comments in the Reddit thread, this is clickbait fear-mongering. It's a sad state of affairs when Reddit users are savvier than HN users.

Re: YouTube is taking down educational hacking videos

#100

Post by watwut »

FillardMillmore wrote: post #54
motohagiography wrote: post #39

I learned security from t-files, 8lgm, phrack, and bugtraq. The people who taught me learned it from mentorship. The only meaningful progress in security is by people who work against it. It's a craft subculture, and the real value of it is in securing the freedom of people to not be subjects of platforms. YouTube is lame for doing this, but it's a net positive for innovation. Let them have their walled suburb. Innov…

What, if any, advice would you offer someone who would like to begin learning about security today?

You need to figure out what you mean by security. Cryptography? Hacking devices? Stalking/anti-stalking, malware, etc? Hardening boxes? Penetration testing?
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