Leading cybersecurity expert Matthew Hickey and team teach you offensive hacking techniques!

Cybersecurity threats are everywhere. The best way to identify the real-world risks to your computer networks and your data—and to defend against attacks—is to think like malicious hackers and understand their methods.

Hands on Hacking is a crash-course on the techniques hackers use to attack and compromise organizations of all sizes with an emphasis on the practical elements of hacking. Virtual labs have been put together exclusively for this book, that readers can download for honing and testing their skills. Based on Hacker House's training courses, this book covers ethics and law, open-source intelligence gathering, domain name systems, email services, web servers, virtual private networks, file storage, database servers and web applications. We cover Linux, UNIX and the Microsoft Windows operating systems including tools and exploits used for hacking into them.

Requiring no previous experience in computer hacking and only an entry level understanding of computers and networking, this book will help you to develop the curiosity, creativity, and determination that every hacker possesses, whether you're a business leader, or someone getting started as an ethical hacker. You will examine a typical company's infrastructure, explore how to access its servers and data, probe for flaws, and search for vulnerabilities. You'll run exploits which have been developed by individual hackers and government agencies, learn how they work, and use them to hack into the accompanying lab. Finally, you'll learn how to report your findings and suggest remedial action to your client or team.

Written by information security expert Matthew Hickey, who has an established history of discovering critical security vulnerabilities and teaching others to do the same, Hands on Hacking helps you:

• Learn theoretical and practical aspects of hacking
• Understand what hackers can do to and for a company while creating a positive hacker-aware culture in your organization
• Create Purple Teams – a mix of attackers and defenders that work together to identify and solve security issues
• Understand protocols that power networks and the Internet, learn and understand their flaws
• Hack into Linux, Unix and Microsoft Windows operating systems
• Assess web applications for critical vulnerabilities and exploit them
• Develop the mindset of an ethical hacker and learn the processes of professional hacking

A fast, hands-on introduction to offensive hacking techniques

Hands-On Hacking teaches readers to see through the eyes of their adversary and apply hacking techniques to better understand real-world risks to computer networks and data. Readers will benefit from the author's years of experience in the field hacking into computer networks and ultimately training others in the art of cyber-attacks. This book holds no punches and explains the tools, tactics and procedures used by ethical hackers and criminal crackers alike.

We will take you on a journey through a hacker’s perspective when focused on the computer infrastructure of a target company, exploring how to access the servers and data. Once the information gathering stage is complete, you’ll look for flaws and their known exploits—including tools developed by real-world government financed state-actors.

• An introduction to the same hacking techniques that malicious hackers will use against an organization
• Written by infosec experts with proven history of publishing vulnerabilities and highlighting security flaws
• Based on the tried and tested material used to train hackers all over the world in the art of breaching networks
• Covers the fundamental basics of how computer networks are inherently vulnerable to attack, teaching the student how to apply hacking skills to uncover vulnerabilities

We cover topics of breaching a company from the external network perimeter, hacking internal enterprise systems and web application vulnerabilities. Delving into the basics of exploitation with real-world practical examples, you won't find any hypothetical academic only attacks here. From start to finish this book will take the student through the steps necessary to breach an organization to improve its security.

Written by world-renowned cybersecurity experts and educators, Hands-On Hacking teaches entry-level professionals seeking to learn ethical hacking techniques. If you are looking to understand penetration testing and ethical hacking, this book takes you from basic methods to advanced techniques in a structured learning format.