Top Resources to Learn Ethical Hacking

In this article, I will list the best resources all over the internet which will help you to be a hacker. I would be answering the following questions:

What is hacking?
Why learn to hack?
Where can you learn to hack?

What we’ll Cover

Introduction to hacking.
Why learn to hack.
Video sources.
Web-articles.
Books.
Paid and free courses.

Introduction to Hacking.

Hacking in its simplest explanation is breaking into a system that has a certain degree of security.

Hacking is a skill set and requires a lot of practice to become good at.

There are 3 types of hackers, they are:

Black Hat.
White Hat.
Grey Hat.

Black hat hackers: This category of hackers do hacking for malicious purposes.

White hat hackers: This category of hackers do hacking for the benefit of others. They hack to secure the vulnerability that can lead to harm.

Grey Hat Hackers: This category of hackers acts as both white Hat and black hat hackers. This makes them be on both the good and bad side, depending on the situation 😀 .

Hacking is a vast subject. It has a lot of sub-categories which includes:

Web application.
Forensic.
Networking.
Cloud.
Systems both mobile and desktop devices.
Hardware.

These are some of the various things you can learn and each has sub-topics that are interesting.

The main goal of a white-hat hacker is to find a potential vulnerability, exploit it, gain access, create a detailed document and report it to the authorities.

Hackers or pentesters are paid on the scale of priority of the vulnerability reported. This is decided based on a priority table that is made by the board showing which part of their infrastructure is most important and needs special attention. If you are successful in finding a vulnerability in that specific section you can expect a high reward.

If you are not into full-time pentesting and want to do part-time then Bug-bounty hunting is the go-to thing for you.

Bug-bounty hunting is a program hosted by company websites with specified rules and regulations. They usually specify things they won't consider a bug and other than those things, any other possible bug you find will get you some reward from the website.

A Bug in this sense is a vulnerability that can be exploited to gain information or unauthorized access into the server.

Bug bounty hunters usually have extensive knowledge of different types of bugs. Some of the common types of bugs include XSS, HTML-INJECTION, CSRF, etc. Having knowledge and being able to detect these vulnerabilities as a bug-bounty hunter can get you a decent amount of pay from the bounty.

Other than being a bug-bounty hunter, you can also be a freelance pentester, where the work will be more but the payout is more than that of a bug bounty.

Why Learn to Hack?

In my previous explanation, I have introduced you to various types of hackers and what they do for a living. Having knowledge of hacking and how it works, you can be able to protect yourself and others, and also educate them with your experience. You can also make a living via hacking by being a bug-bounty hunter or a freelance pentester. You could also get a job after gaining a few certifications.

This leads us to our next question where to start? if you ask me there is no way you can excel in any field without knowing the basics relating to the field you are going to choose.

All the things such as basic networking, web application, and programming can be learned from web sources such as Youtube or Udemy but if you want professional teaching then you can opt for training from official sources such as Offensive security, INE, EC-Council, etc.

Fundamentals are easy to understand anyone can achieve learning the fundamentals, but the main goal is to learn the advanced things, for example, if you understand how the server works with the client-side request, you can learn how to manipulate and possibly exploit the server.

You need not worry, anyone can achieve this. Some people are afraid to learn things from a new field while studying in a different field, for example, a commerce student fears that studying this topic will be of no use for him in the future even though it has potential.

I am a commerce student and I started to learn hacking while I was in 12th grade. I felt the topics were interesting and changed my goal from pursuing a commerce-based job and instead started learning to hack. I hope to become a professional pentester and in the future even start a security-related firm.

Similarly, anyone from any field can learn to hack and become a hacker but it requires dedication and a lot of practice to learn and perfect your skills.

Professional aspect: Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field for job opportunities and even new freshers can also get a high salary job with work experience if you have prior experience and certifications then you can expect a good salary and high growth in your job profile.

Video Sources

There are a lot of online video sources such as Youtube and Udemy. On social media platforms, you can follow some professionals who have great links and useful resources to learn from.

Social media

These are some of the best social media influencers who share information of value and can help you in your works.

On Youtube, you can refer to the following Youtube channels:

I would recommend you follow David Bombals's Youtube video as he gives a lot of giveaways. I love his works, his explanations are also really easy to understand and beginner-friendly.

Web-articles.

Web articles are write-ups that enable people with knowledge to share their thoughts and points related to a certain topic or a certain event that matters in the cybersecurity world.

There are several websites where one can find web articles. But I am going to mention a few of them that I find to be quite informative.

Website links:

These are some of the useful websites you can use to learn more about the latest events and more related to security-related content.

Books.

Cybersecurity-related books are all over the internet but some of them stand out. I am going to list 11 of the best ones to start your security journey.

Book links:

These are some of the most useful books out there for beginners and intermediate-level hackers.

Paid and free courses.

Udemy courses:

Weblinks to gain infinite knowledge in any field for free:

Sources

The main source for this article is my personal experience but the bonus link is something I felt can be of some use. I am including that link as it will be useful and can help many others in their journey to become ethical hackers.

Bonus.

This one is a bonus it is a complete compiled version of all the most popular and underrated resources all over the internet made available in one link. I appreciate the effort made by Vitalysim to make such a great resource, the above links and resources are which I used to learn to hack and the basics but this link has all the resources A-Z everything.

Link: Awesome-Hacking-Resource.