[icdxpresso]

I'm interested in learning about reverse engineering and malware analysis. Is learning C the proper first step in getting my hands dirty? I used C++ in a few college courses, but I've been primarily a Java developer for the past two years.

[tboneatx]

Definitely C, and you will also need to know a fair bit of assembly. Also familiar yourself with the PE (portable executable) format and learn how to use IDA disassembler and possibly SoftICE (Not sure if it still works, but it was/is a very powerful kernel debugger)