How to Become an Ethical Hacker - Beginner's Guide

I've shared few effective tips on How can you become an ethical hacker. All the tips and guide are purely based on my experience, knowledge and few tips by security researchers. I've explained what you should know and learn to become an ethical hacker.

What you must know to become an Ethical Hacker?

• Right meaning and role of an Ethical Hacker
• Patience and Passion of learning
• Programming languages and Networking
• Proper sources to learn Hacking
• Use Penetration Testing Lab
• Learn Kali Linux (Penetration Testing OS)
• Professional Ethical Hacking Certifications

Who is an Ethical Hacker and what's its role?

An ethical hacker is someone who is trained with hacking skills not to hack but to secure the target by finding its weakness and reporting the vulnerability to security experts. An ethical hacker plays an important role incomputer security by securing online applications, software and business databases. An ethical hacker has a legal license and rights to test application for vulnerabilities.

Keep patience and be passionate about learning.

So you want be a hacker? Good but its not easy you know. It takes years to become a professional ethical hacker or a security expert so be patient, nobody is born expert, start from scratch and be passionate about learning new things. Keep yourself inspired by reading inspirational Interviews of successful Hackers and Security researchers and Always remember —

Every expert in anything was once a beginner and beginning is the hardest part.

Learn Programming languages and Networking

Programming and Networking are the two most important things in Hacking and Security. Every application you use is programmed in particular programming language and with the help of networking it can be used online or shared computer network, Now if you want to hack an application so first of all you've to understand how it works and without knowing programming language you cannot understand its logic and so it becomes harder for you to find vulnerability in its logic.


Networking is another essential topic in hacking and security. Networking is the major part of internet security. If you want to be a professional security expert or hacker then learning networking is very important because the whole internet relies on TCP/IP and In order to find vulnerabilities in web sites and applications you must need to understand the network logic.

Sources of learning Ethical Hacking For Free

Internet is the only best place to learn Ethical Hacking for free of cost. All you need is little Googling skill and patience to learn. There are countless Hacking and Pentesting blogs on internet where you can learn a lot about Hacking, Pentesting and Security. The another best way is watching video tutorials, Security Researcher's vulnerability POCs, reading white papers and free online eBooks etc.... I also suggest you to join Hacking forums and subscribe to blogs.

Read — Top 5 Ethical Hacking and Pentesting Books of 2015

Install Penetration Testing lab

Creating virtual penetration testing lab in your computer is the method to learn web application pentesting and hacking. A virtual pentesting lab is a real vulnerable application which can be used to explore, demonstrate common web vulnerabilities and its impact. Pentesting lab is widely used by Security Experts and newbies in hacking to learn new web vulnerabilities and how to discover them. I highly suggest you to use a pentesting lab to learn and hone your hacking skills.

Learn Kali Linux - Advanced Penetration Testing OS

Kali Linux is an operating system especially made for hackers and penetration testers, It has hundreds of pre-installed Hacking tools, Automated scanners, fuzzing, forensics and other essential penetration testing tools. One must learn to operate Kali Linux and learn to use its tools. Kali Linux is the latest version of (BackTrack), It is one of the most popular and widely used by Hackers.

Creating pentesting lab in Kali is the super best method to learn web hacking by using Kali's tools, I highly recommend you to install pentesting lab in Kali Linux.

Professional Ethical Hacking Certifications

If you're really serious about considering hacking and security as your career choice then you must get Penetration testing license, Ethical hacking and Security certificates. Read Top 4 Ethical Hacking Pentesting and Security Courses for your career.

Conclusion!

Becoming an ethical hacker isn't so easy, as I said it takes years to achieve success. As soon as you start learning you'll acquire knowledge and wisdom step-by-step, just be patient and keep learning. Always use Penetration testing lab for practicing your skills and exploring vulnerabilities, its also recommended to use Kali Linux's tools to pentest the applications and last but not least get certified.