FWIW: I (@rondy) am not the creator of the content shared here, which is an excerpt from Edmond Lau's book. I simply copied and pasted it from another location and saved it as a personal note, before it gained popularity on news.ycombinator.com. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the exact origin of the original source, nor was I able to find the author's name, so I am can't provide the appropriate credits.
This is an opinionated guide to learning about computer security (independently of a university or training program), starting with the absolute basics (suitable for someone without any exposure to or knowledge of computer security) and moving into progressively more difficult subject matter.
It seems that most people don't realize how much information is actually available on the internet. People love to share (especially geeks) and everything you need to become well versed in computer security is already available to you (and mostly for free). However, sometimes knowing where to start is the hardest part - which is the problem that this guide is intended to address. Therefore, this guide can accuratley be described as a 'guide to guides', with additional recommendations on effective learning and execises, based on my own experiences.
Many of the free resources are the best resources and this guide focuses on them. It is intended to provided a comprehensive