What is Ethical Hacking

The term white hat in Internet slang refers to an ethical computer hacker, or a computer security expert, who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization’s information systems.

This is a unique skill that requires many, many hours of training and study. It is tedious and laborious  work but dabbling in it might be fun.

What You Need

This activity can be performed on most computers, the more RAM you have install the better.

Because hacking others is usually frowned upon we will create a virtual environment to attack. We will use Virtualbox to create the virtual machines that will make up the network. Virtualbox is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris and just about anything else.

You may need a file archiving program to unpack some of the downloaded files. My favorite is 7-Zip. It is a opensource program that will unpack nearly any archiving format, from Arj to Zip.

You will need the operating systems that you plan to install. Either a disc image (ISO), virtual machine appliances or even the disc itself.

Debian Linux – You need only the first CD.

Windows Virtual Appliances – Make sure you always select VirtualBox when you select the platform.

Kali Linux – Make sure you select the “Prebuilt Kali Linux VirtualBox Images” tab.

Last but not least you need a free Lynda.com account from the Louisville Free Public Library. This requires a library card.  Of course you can always use a paid account. The course that will refer to in Step One is “Introduction to Kali Linux”.