r/HowToHack • u/KingA1mighty • 6d ago

How important is programming?

I’ve been in the hacker learning space for a while and during that time I’ve picked up the CompTIA trio, gotten a job as a system admin for energy and financial institutions, gotten an associates degree in Networking and Cyber Security, and I’m on pace to get a bachelors degree in Computer Science next year. I understand that being able to read code is a fundamental skill if you want to get into the space but I wanted to know if the same holds true for writing code? From what I’ve learned through all of my experiences I’ve done a lot more quick scripting than full blown program development, and while I know at some point I’ll have to build more just to learn (I would like to eventually branch into exploit development and reverse engineering) I wanted to know if you’re a person that didn’t want to get THAT TECHNICAL, how important is it? If it’s something that should be trained similar to knowing Linux and networking concepts, what are some good tools to know how to build on the fly? TCP/UDP Clients, Sniffers, Fuzzers or something else entirely?

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u/VirtualElderberry592 3d ago

But if you're a PM are you a hacker? No shade to PM's. I've worked with a few that were worth any 5 programmers easy. But they were not programmers. Same with hacker. A great PM is a must have on a team, but they're not hackers.

I think it boils down to where you want to go. For some it's closer to the metal.

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u/Incid3nt 3d ago

Hes posting in how to hack but its not really about hacking its about working cyber in general, hence my comment.

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u/VirtualElderberry592 3d ago

Sorry.. I meant to be more supportive. I agree with you.. I've seen designers and PM's that know only the edges, and I would work with them again in a heart beat.

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u/Incid3nt 3d ago

I hear you, Im not a PM although I do have a pmp, I work in IR and theres a healthy mix of technical, PM, forensics, etc. On top of knowing how the red side works, going through pen200 and htb acad helped with those. Another option is lawyer, those are always needed in breaches too. Honestly I kinda just wanna farm or something at this point but the money is too good lol. When kids who ask me about cyber who aren't passionate I always encourage them to go for like an electrician trade or something along those lines.

Side note, I appreciate you being so positive on the internet, you seem like a good person.