How much programming do you know?

phoeneous

My aspiration is to work in network security. I am fascinated by information security and how it all ties together. I am constantly pushing myself to learn new things and I would like to expand my knowledge of programming. I did some VB in college and a little VBS for work, but that has been the extent of it. I would like to learn more about C, Perl, Python, and Java. Do you think juggling this mental capacity along with my networking pursuits is to much? I dont want to burn myself out but at the same time I dont want to limit my capabilities.

So, for those that work in network security or infosec, how much programming do you need to know? I know its a broad subject, so I will be more specific towards penetration testing and ethical hacking. All insight is appreciated.

hollow666

Perl will definitely come in handy in no matter what you do and or want to use it for if your good at it. I use it on almost a weekly basis to cook up something that I need to do at least when it comes to systems management and especially for managing our linux boxes. Java would be good if you want to be a programmer but I don't see it being used very often for network management or security. Perl is just really easy to script with and very powerful. If you really want to be analyzing 0 day exploits then your going to need to brush up on your C.

dynamik

It's really not that bad to work with multiple languages simultaneously. You'll start to see a lot of similarities and patterns between them. Perl, Python, C, and shell scripting are important for *nix (Ruby too to save Undomiel the effort), and you should start looking at PowerShell if you're interested in MS at all.

Netwurk

Another vote for Perl here

Miikey87

Definately get some "me" time in with Perl, i found it to be one of the best languages for me to work with, just a personal opinion. As dynamik said you will definately see similarities, once you get the hang of the basics of your loops, OO programming, and general coding statements it wont take long to jump from language to language and pic the basics up pretty quickly .