Free Online Penetration Testing Courses

1. Penetration Testing Engineer

This comprehensive course will familiarise you with actions like ‘sniffing’ and ‘banner grabbing’ and show you techniques for ethically hacking mobile and IoT devices.

2. Penetration Testing Consultant

Select the best tools for the job by completing this course that explains techniques like ASLR (address space layout randomisation) and those supplied by OWASP (Open Worldwide Application Security Project).

3. API Pentesting for CEH

Do you want to know how to test APIs ethically? Enrol in this short course that includes hands-on, real-life examples to sharpen your skills and bolster your technical knowledge with practical action.

Penetration testing (often shortened to pentesting) is a legal and authorised simulated cyber attack on a computer system to see if it can be breached or ‘penetrated’. It is crucial to setting up a new system as it quickly highlights any weaknesses that genuine hackers could exploit with criminal intent.

Pentesters use the same techniques and tools as criminal hackers, but because their attack is authorised, this is known as ‘ethical hacking’ or ‘white hat’ hacking.

In-demand penetration testers have a unique combination of skills that allow them always to be one step ahead of ‘black hat hackers’ who want to steal funds out of bank accounts, steal confidential information, hold systems to ransom and cause chaos and humiliation by revealing private photographs or messages.

If this is a career that appeals to you, then you should:

• Study as many operating systems as possible
• Learn as many software programs as possible
• Be able to script or code
• Understand network programming
• Know about information security
• Understand malware
• Continually update yourself about advances in web development

But in addition to these hard skills, you also need personal attributes such as:

• Loyalty 
• Trust
• Ethical responsibility 
• Compassion or empathy
• Ability to communicate
• Honesty

After all, you will be able to access systems and information - and know their weaknesses - so your clients or employers are depending on you to always be on the white hat side and never be tempted to fall into the criminal realm of black hatters.