[The Social Engineer]

Hello fellow hackers, modders, crackers, trolls, and assholes, 😏

As the title states, I am looking to start a local group dedicated to teaching beginners.

I've been to only a handful of security cons, and seen a few CTF events online. Most of it is pretty advanced for someone just starting out in this, so I've been wanting to start a training / practice group for high school and college students to come to.

Was wondering if any of you have been to / hosted events like this in the past, and what kind of advice you could give?

Thanks,

- Daedalus

[Faith Connors]

noble of you to do something like this, helping beginners or the likes.

but first plan out your criteria for letting people in. some things to look at:
-how active will they be/dedicated (since you dont want people who show up for one meeting and dip on you)
-the actual admission requirements (no use teaching something to someone who has absolutely zero fundamental knowledge)
-what kind of stuff do you want to cover
-how are you going to cover it
-what is the end-goal for people who join and for the group overall (ie. why do people give a shit, "just to learn a new skill :P" is a braindead answer.)

and if i can offer you any advice, doing this on the internet on-and-off or just teaching people in general, never be the smartest person in the room. bring some friends who ARE close to your skill level or better in your opinion. if you have trouble explaining something, it's best to let someone else help. also, this will help keep you motivated if your class/club starts to turn vacant.

[sh4moon]

I'd be willing to help out with this and/or learn some stuff. I like the idea.

[CyberStrike]

Look for a local OWASP group, you can always do a highschool or college club. I think if you do the school part you really have to present it as a way for students to learn responsibility with computers, a controlled/isolated lab I am sure that there are teachers who have hobbies including this one.

Edit: Probably check if there is a computer club in your highschool, I know for a fact that some schools do have clubs or teams for ctf's.

[Faith Connors]

Look for a local OWASP group, you can always do a highschool or college club. I think if you do the school part you really have to present it as a way for students to learn responsibility with computers, a controlled/isolated lab I am sure that there are teachers who have hobbies including this one.

Edit: Probably check if there is a computer club in your highschool, I know for a fact that some schools do have clubs or teams for ctf's.

vouch for this, except that afaik lots of owasp chapters do have some sort of entry fee (at least around here in canada) but ik local defcon or 2600 groups are generally free and welcome everyone

and yeah most schools usually have clubs for that, albeit more popular at college/uni

[The Social Engineer]

Excellent advice, thank you very much. I had overlooked the admission requirements at first,

noble of you to do something like this, helping beginners or the likes.

but first plan out your criteria for letting people in. some things to look at:
-how active will they be/dedicated (since you dont want people who show up for one meeting and dip on you)
-the actual admission requirements (no use teaching something to someone who has absolutely zero fundamental knowledge)
-what kind of stuff do you want to cover
-how are you going to cover it
-what is the end-goal for people who join and for the group overall (ie. why do people give a shit, "just to learn a new skill :P" is a braindead answer.)

and if i can offer you any advice, doing this on the internet on-and-off or just teaching people in general, never be the smartest person in the room. bring some friends who ARE close to your skill level or better in your opinion. if you have trouble explaining something, it's best to let someone else help. also, this will help keep you motivated if your class/club starts to turn vacant.

---

I would definitely welcome any help. Only thing is, I'm in Japan :-P

Anything you do help with would definitely be credited to your name, of course :-)

I'd be willing to help out with this and/or learn some stuff. I like the idea.

[Faith Connors]

Excellent advice, thank you very much. I had overlooked the admission requirements at first,

---

I would definitely welcome any help. Only thing is, I'm in Japan :-P

Anything you do help with would definitely be credited to your name, of course :-)

daigaku de nihongo o benkyou shimasu
or maybe its nihongo wa daigaku de benkyoushimasu
i think thats correct idk
not getting the best grades in the course uwu

but uhhhhhh depending on where you are, i know some major cities or regions have meetups. tokyo akihabara is the first place to look since there are lots of hackerspaces or just generally nerdy people, was a blast when i went lol
but i know hackernews has a group in the kansai region, i think they meetup in osaka every month so that might be worthwhile. from their past meetup videos, it looks like its predominantly english and not really focused on security, rather just tech-field trends, so if you're looking for an actual japanese and security-oriented group, that might not be the best for ya.
either way, http://hnkansai.org/

[The Social Engineer]

That's a good point. I've looked into chapters in the past, but found that they were at LEAST 4-6 hours from my location... I could, however, look into starting my own 2600 and/or DefCon chapters here in Hiroshima!

I'll be sure to make note of it!

vouch for this, except that afaik lots of owasp chapters do have some sort of entry fee (at least around here in canada) but ik local defcon or 2600 groups are generally free and welcome everyone

and yeah most schools usually have clubs for that, albeit more popular at college/uni

---

OWASP sounds like a good one, but the only issue would be the fees. I'm practically broke right now :-P

Apart from that, I'm an online university teacher, not a high school student ;-)

Look for a local OWASP group, you can always do a highschool or college club. I think if you do the school part you really have to present it as a way for students to learn responsibility with computers, a controlled/isolated lab I am sure that there are teachers who have hobbies including this one.

Edit: Probably check if there is a computer club in your highschool, I know for a fact that some schools do have clubs or teams for ctf's.

---

I think you had it right on the first line. If you're currently studying - it's "shimasu", but if you previously studied, it would be "shimashita" ;-)

Anyway, I know that Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Osaka are the tech hubs of Japan - but that's also my crux, as I live in rural Hiroshima, 30 minutes from Down-Town. Hiroshima has SOME tech companies and schools - but the focus is more on agriculture, accounting, steel, cars, and medical. Not to mention the ratio of English speakers is drastically different :-P

daigaku de nihongo o benkyou shimasu
or maybe its nihongo wa daigaku de benkyoushimasu
i think thats correct idk
not getting the best grades in the course uwu

but uhhhhhh depending on where you are, i know some major cities or regions have meetups. tokyo akihabara is the first place to look since there are lots of hackerspaces or just generally nerdy people, was a blast when i went lol
but i know hackernews has a group in the kansai region, i think they meetup in osaka every month so that might be worthwhile. from their past meetup videos, it looks like its predominantly english and not really focused on security, rather just tech-field trends, so if you're looking for an actual japanese and security-oriented group, that might not be the best for ya.
either way, >link redacted due to lack of posts<