You can use weapons to destruct or protect; it’s just a matter of intentions! The same goes for hacking.
What is Ethical Hacking?
Ethical Hackers attack systems with a good intent to report the security loopholes. It helps organizations patch those vulnerabilities before any bad actor attempts exploitation.
For instance, you can meet Charlie and Chris Brooks, real-life ethical hackers helping people recover their lost Bitcoins. In short, people come to them with their cryptocurrency wallets to which they’ve lost access. So Charlie and Chris try hacking into those wallets to get the funds back. Simply put, ethical hackers and malicious hackers have similar skillsets but entirely different mindsets.
Why Learn Ethical Hacking?
It’s not just the goodwill they earn. Because of the ever-expanding digital footprint and the sizeable number of black hat hackers trying to cash in the security risks, Ethical Hacking has become a career option with massive opportunities. There are instances of entry-level people (1-3 years experience) earning in six figures. Check this: So, if you’ve made up your mind, let’s jump in to check out the best places to start you with.
Top Ethical Hacking Courses
Udemy has a broad spectrum of courses in just about every stream, and they didn’t disappoint here as well. You can find plenty of Ethical hacking courses for beginners to experts on Udemy. Notably, every course on Udemy comes with lifetime access. While I can’t preview every single one, you’ll definitely find insights into some of them. Let’s start with:
Learn Ethical Hacking From Scratch
As evident by the title, this Ethical hacking course by Udemy is for beginners. You’ll be having 135+ videos to learn from. The experts will train you to install your own hacking lab and the necessary infrastructure. In addition, this course also trains you in over 30 hacking tools like Metasploit, Aircrack-ng, SQLmap. Besides, you will be taught Linux basics, network hacking, and penetration testing.
Hacking For Beginners
Can you hack without any prior experience or skills? This beginner-only module in ethical hacking by Hackers Academy promises your first hack in under 60 minutes. And they don’t require any upfront expertise in programming, networking, or Linux to join. Surprisingly, this course is programming-free–no coding till the end. But you’ll be learning some Linux and networking along the way.
Hacking In Practice
You’ll be needing some information technology knowledge to begin with this Intensive Ethical Hacking MEGA Course. This module has over 239 lectures in addition to 27 hours of video training. And like the previous two, you don’t need any programming to hit the road. The curriculum is focused on network security in the Windows (7) ecosystem, As of this writing, you can grab a free voucher for the ISA CISS examination after completing this course.
Learn Ethical Hacking: Beginner to Advanced
Over 200k students have taken this course authored by Joseph Delgadillo. With 28 hours of high-definition videos, this is centered around setting up Kali Linux, website penetration testing, and learning the basics of python programming. Besides, there is scope to get into man-in-the-middle attacks and WiFi hacking. And finally, the course concludes with tips to build a career in cyber security.
Website Hacking / Penetration Testing & Bug Bounty Hunting
This bestseller course on Udemy needs basic IT skills to enroll in. With over 90 hours of video training, you’re promised an expert-level foothold in website hacking. In addition, you’ll be learning the Kali Linux setup for penetration testing using the Linux terminal. But the core of this module lies in finding, exploiting, and fixing various vulnerabilities associated with web servers. Coursera is another leading platform for digital learning. It lets you learn from some of the top universities and industry people. Generally, these are free ethical hacking courses but become paid if you want to earn a certification or access graded assignments.
Hacking and Patching
Hacking and Patching is an attempt from the University of Colorado to introduce ethical hacking. This four-week course starts with compromising web applications, hacking SQL databases, and patching web apps with modified code. The next half of the module caters to memory attacks, defenses, and penetration testing. This is an intermediate-level course that has around 15 hours of study material.
Cybersecurity Specialization
This ethical hacking module is from the experts of the University of Maryland. This has an intermediate-level curriculum that mandates some related experience before joining in. Cybersecurity Specialization will take you around eight months to complete if you go with the suggested pace of 2 hours per week. This has five courses bundled in as one: Usable Security, Software Security, Cryptography, Hardware Security, and then finally a hands-on exercise. The last section is based on designing a secure system and finding flaws in your peers’ designs.
IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate
What’s better than to learn from the technology giant itself? This Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate is for beginners. The course curriculum is comprised of four modules:
Cyber Security tools & Cyber AttacksCybersecurity Roles, Processes & Operating System SecurityCybersecurity Compliance Framework & System AdministrationNetwork Security & Database Vulnerabilities
This is a very lengthy course, sprawling over eight months. Owning to the size of this ethical hacking course, you can also take each module separately.
Cyber Security Basics: A Hands-on Approach
You can opt for this course offered by the University Carlos III of Madrid if you’ve got an elementary knowledge of computers and operating systems. The first half of the syllabus has the types of cyber threats, computer forensics, and reverse engineering in programming. And the other half goes on to cover cyberdefense, advanced persistent threats, vulnerabilities, etc. You can take this course for free except for graded assignments and exams, which are paid for.
Ethical Hacking Fundamentals
PluralSight has 21 courses lined up in 79 hours in this comprehensive hacking fundamentals-booster segment. And you also have the choice to pursue any of these courses individually. This gigantic module comprises tutorials about hacking web servers, mobile platforms, WiFi, IoT devices, etc. You’ll also learn topics like cryptography, cloud computing, penetration testing, SQL injections. While you might be utterly naive to ethical hacking, the instructors recommend an excellent grasp of TCP/IP and operating systems to join this course. In addition, you are also supposed to have at least one year of experience working with networking technologies.
Ethical Hacker-Nanodegree Program
Udacity is a premium platform hosting this ethical hacking segment for intermediate to advanced learners. Before joining, you are expected to have some proficiency in Linux, Networking, Programming, and Windows OS. This is a 2-month course with 5-10 hours of weekly engagement. The curriculum is focused on Ethical hackers’ job responsibilities, including a set of techniques to perform the task at hand. Besides, you’ll be taught in detail about penetration testing. Finally, the module completes with a hands-on project to test the skills learned throughout the course.
Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking
Cybrary has precisely 7 hours 6 minutes of video training to help you become a penetration tester. While the course length seems short, the curriculum is pretty wide. It gives you a taste of Ethical hacking basics, website & DNS footprinting, network scanning, system hacking, etc. You’ll also be taught about hacking for various use cases like web applications, mobile, IoT & OT. And finally, this course ends with sections about cloud security and cryptography. You’ll earn an EC-Council certification after the successful completion of this course.
Complete Ethical Hacking Course
StationX has this as a self-paced beginner-to-expert ethical course bundle. And the best part is, you don’t need any upfront skills, to begin with. This is indeed a bundle with five courses wrapped-up as one. You will be learning:
Setting up your hacking lab with the essential toolsWebsite hacking and Penetration testingHacking using Android OSWireless and Wired Network HacksUsing Social Engineering to compromise Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, etc.
And with this course, you’ll acquire the skill set of a professional, ethical hacker towards the end.
Become an Ethical Hacker
LinkedIn has this extensive course to get you onboard ethical hacking. Become an Ethical Hacker is a set of 19 courses comprising 30 hours of tutorials. The curriculum includes:
Ethical hacking introduction and footprintingNetwork Scanning, Enumeration, Vulnerability AnalysisNetwork sniffing, Social Engineering, DoS attacksSession Hijacking, Evading FirewallsHacking Web-Servers, WiFi networks, mobile platforms, IoT devicesCryptography, Cloud Security, and SQL injection
You’re also free to opt for specific modules and not subscribe to the complete course. Finally, it gives a chance to earn a badge of completion to flaunt it on your LinkedIn profile.
Conclusion
Ethical hacking is one of the core domains of Cybersecurity. Practically, it’s a never-ending resource of opportunities; since the internet is not going anywhere, and it brings along an army of black hat hackers to prey upon the weak. So, what are you waiting for? Put your white hat on and be the much-needed savior of this digital world. Also, here are some web applications where you can practice hacking legally.
