Books for a beginner?

[pyro7235]

Hello all. I've only recently come into the programming/hacking aspect of computers, and I know next to nothing. Could anyone suggest some books that would guide and teach me in an easy-to-understand manner? I don't want to be babied to an extreme extent, yet I also don't want to be frustrated to the point of giving up on hacking. Any help that can be given would be greatly appreciated.

[msbachman]

I'd recommend the "Hacking Exposed" series. They are relatively easy reads.

Some asshat pirate posted three of them online to a publically accessible site. Of course, you should never download pirated copies of anything.

Update: I'm an idiot. I posted the wrong link before. It's correct now.

[pyro7235]

Awesome, I'll look into that. Do the concepts introduced in the book still work for modern programs? Also, will it help me understand the different programming codes?

[msbachman]

Awesome, I'll look into that. Do the concepts introduced in the book still work for modern programs? Also, will it help me understand the different programming codes?

Some do and some probably won't. Haven't read the book in a while, but one thing I remember them going into right off the bat is using proxychains to do anonymized port-scanning. That still applies.

Other things probably don't, but I wouldn't rule out outdated exploits still being viable in certain environments. For instance, just think about the number of people still running older OSs and/or unpatched. This will always apply to a degree with hacking books/articles, because the time it takes to go to press is slower than most-all entities can patch known exploits.