Request for suggested reads freeware software packages

I've been scratching around all sorts of security forums. Sadly, I keep walking out of them with only conceptual reasoning and no tool box. Scratching around this site pretty much gives you a single thread of reasoning as well as tools. What I'm humbly requesting for. Is a stepping stone to start a journey to become the kind of dude that catches a zero day before it is known and methodology to clamping the door shut. How do you navigate the wild and weird world of copy right laws that plain out reject looking at the inner workings? As a network engineering student. I'm heavily interested in security.