How should I get started?

There are many aspects in becoming a "Hacker", "Cracker", or "Coder"... Your first step is to learn how things work, the best way to exploit anything is knowing the in's and outs... UGN Security recommends that everyone learn how certain things work dependant on what you're wanting to do...

For example:
If you're wanting to "hack" websites we recommend researching web languages (PHP/MySQL, Perl, etc).
If you're wanting to learn how to "exploit" windows or other operating systems we recommend that you read up on desktop programming (such as C++, Visual Basic, etc).

By learning some types of programming you're making strides in learning other languages as well as most languages tie into, and have a likeness of, other languages. For example, by learning PHP you'll likely be able to pickup Perl and C++ easier than by not having any experiance.

Is there a place that I can go to get started?

UGN Security has a large newbie forum with plenty of answered questions; our staff has also taken the time to make many threads to cover plenty of various topics; we recommend that you take the time to check on them before asking any questions as you're likely to find leads to answer anything you can think of. You can find this forum here.

Do you have any recommended reading?

Yes, we have a thread on our forum dedicated to recommended reading; this thread is updated constantly as new articles or books are supplied via responses. You can find this thread here.

Do you know of a place that I can go to get help on computer issues?

We can recommend our Forums or our affiliate site Back of the Web for starters.

How can I hack into my [insert random relation here]'s email?

Where we are here to lend assistance to those willing, and wanting, to learn; we will not teach anyone how to do anything which is of an illegal nature. If you're planning on asking questions among these lines on our fourms you will recieve an unpleasant response.