best resources for learning ethical hacking

Best Resources For Learning Ethical Hacking

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Best resources for learning Ethical Hacking.

Penetration Testing or Ethical Hacking is an excellent job for someone skilled in lateral thinking, has excellent attention to detail, and has strong technical and analytical skills. As companies increase their cybersecurity budgets, ethical hackers are in high demand and the most common question for anybody wanting to get into this field is what are the best resources for learning Ethical Hacking.

The journey will be a little more difficult for those with no IT background when compared to folks with an IT background, but like Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nothing worth having comes easy.” For those willing to put the effort, Ethical Hacking can be a rewarding and lucrative career.

In this article, we will cover an extensive list of the best resources for learning Ethical Hacking.

Coding.

A strong understanding of programming languages and their workings is essential for ethical hackers. This does not mean you need to be able to code in every language. That would be impossible. However, it is crucial to have an understanding of the most popular coding languages used by businesses.

Check out our article that covers the best programming languages for Ethical Hackers.

  1. Firecode.io: Firecode.io uses machine-learning algorithms in conjunction with curated real-world interview questions, solutions, and a vibrant social network of learners to help you prepare for your next coding interview.
  2. Codeingame: CodinGame’s goal is to inspire programmers by allowing them to continue improving their programming skills. CodinGame offers coding games as well as a learning platform.
  3. Codeacademy: Codecademy is great for learning code from scratch. It offers many languages you can use for free.

Networking.

To be an ethical hacker, it is important to understand networking.

  1. YouTube: YouTubers David Wetherall, Professor Messer, and dancourses and Eli the computer guy offer some great videos on networking.
  2. Reddit: Networking subreddit and netsec subreddit are great resources to learn networking.

Linux Operating System.

A good skill to have is an understanding of Linux and how it works and the permissions and scripting.

  1. The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Linux
  2. Norman Matloff’s Unix and Linux Tutorial Center
  3. Linux Command
  4. Free Training By The Linux Foundation

Books.

  1. The Hacker Playbook 2: Practical Guide To Penetration Testing
  2. The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing, Second Edition: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy
  3. Breaking into Information Security: Learning the Ropes 101
  4. Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking
  5. Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking
  6. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition
  7. Web Hacking 101
  8. OWASP Testing Guide (A must-read for web application developers and penetration testers)
  9. The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws
  10. The Basics of Web Hacking: Tools and Techniques to Attack the Web

Online Tools to Practice Ethical Hacking.

  1. CTF Hacker101
  2. Hack The Box :: Penetration Testing Labs
  3. Backdoor
  4. CTFLearn
  5. OWASP Vulnerable Web Applications Directory Project (Online)
  6. Pentestit labs
  7. Vulnhub.com
  8. Hacking Articles
  9. Rafay Hacking Articles, a great blog
  10. PentesterLab
  11. CyberSec WTF

Offline Tools to Practice Ethical Hacking.

  1. OWASP Vulnerable Web Applications Directory Project (Offline): This contains a list of vulnerable offline applications that can be used for learning purposes

Vulnerability Machines, Websites Databases, and Resources.

Vulnerability databases are where you should start your day as security professionals. The public vulnerability databases are the best place to find out about new vulnerabilities. Hackers can use these databases to find out how to exploit/avoid/fix vulnerabilities.

  1. FiringRange
  2. http://www.exploit-db.com/
  3. http://www.securityfocus.com/
  4. http://www.securiteam.com/
  5. http://secunia.com/advisories/
  6. http://insecure.org/sploits_all.html
  7. http://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/published/
  8. http://nmrc.org/pub/index.html
  9. http://web.nvd.nist.gov
  10. http://cvedetails.com/
  11. http://www.rapid7.com/vulndb/index.jsp
  12. http://oval.mitre.org/
  13. http://sploitus.com/
  14. http://cxsecurity.com/

Analyzing Malware.

  1. Malware traffic analysis: Comprehensive list of traffic analysis exercises.
  2. Malware Analysis – CSCI 4976:

Courses.

  1. StationX Cybersecurity School

Conferences.

  1. InfoCon – Hacking Conference Archive
  2. Blackhat
  3. Defcon
  4. Security Tube
  5. Ghost in the Cloud, Kevin Mitnick
  6. Kevin Mitnick | Talks at Google

Youtube channels.

  1. LiveOverflow
  2. Black Hat
  3. Injector Pca
  4. Hisham Mir
  5. Suleman Malik
  6. Dem0n
  7. Frans Rosén
  8. HackerOne
  9. ak1t4 machine
  10. vulnerability0lab
  11. Bugcrowd
  12. Vijay Kumar
  13. Web Development Tutorials
  14. Jan Wikholm
  15. Bhargav Tandel
  16. ErrOr SquaD
  17. SecurityIdiots
  18. Penetration Testing in Linux
  19. Null Byte

Forums.

  1. 0x00sec
  2. Hackforums

Conclusion.

This list of resources may seem complex, but a solid understanding of these areas will tremendously help you build a career in Ethical Hacking.

 Going through all the information provided in this article will help you have a strong foundation of technical skills required to grow your career.

Hope you liked this article on The Difference between Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing.

Are you interested in kickstarting your career in Cybersecurity no matter your educational background or experience? Click Here to find out how.

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