Where to Start Learning to Develop Security Systems

I'm currently a student attending College and in the future, I would really love to work on (develop) security systems like Antivirus, Firewalls, etc. I'm not sure where to start or what to start learning so that I can be successful in this field. Any advice?

Right now, I know (not necess开发者_Python百科arily good):

• C, C++, Java, Python
• use Linux (Ubuntu)

I know that my question might be too broad but I really have no idea what core concepts I need to familiarize/master.

My advice would be to start watching every talk that you can find from DEFCON, The Black Hat Conference, Chaos Communication Congress, ShmooCon, and other computer security conferences. This is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to learn.

Start by taking up a Networks, Algorithms and Cryptography course. If you already have, go for more advanced versions of the same. Knowledge of networks, good algorithmic and cryptographic skills are much more important than the languages known in this case.

There are also some great Wargaming sites out there that you can jump on. In particular, I spend some time on these:

- http://hackthissite.org
- http://smashthestack.org
- http://intruded.net
- http://securityoverride.com

Those will give you a kind of 30,000 ft. view of the field of "offensive security".

I'd also recommend trying to track down hacker blogs and hackers on Twitter. (Twitter is actually a remarkably effective way to stay informed about security stuff, in my opinion.) The links above should hopefully put you on the trail.

Good luck!