How to Get Started with Ethical Hacking
Let’s become a Hacker with a simple & straight guide!
Table Of Content:
🔴 My Advice For Your Journey
🔴 What is Hacking?
🔴 Pre Requisites
🔴 Be the Non-Complacent in your Learning Journey
🔴 Fundamental Resources
🔴 Simple Suggestions For Hacking
🔴 InfoSec YouTubers
🔴 Don’t Overwhelm Yourself
🔴 Some Tips
Today, I will discuss how to get started in Ethical Hacking without giving the burden of so many resources!
My Advice For Your Journey
First, let me give you a few pieces of advice for your learning journey.
- Always do the planning first before doing anything, it can save a lot of your time.
- Never overwhelm yourselves with a bunch of resources, just focus on one thing.
- You can’t see the whole path at once, just move ahead and you will find the way toward success.
- You can’t be perfect on anything so don’t worry just move ahead, you will get a good grip over time.
What is Hacking?
Before moving towards ethical hacking, you should have good foundational knowledge about tech. Keep in mind, Hacking is all about finding an unintended way to use anything, which means first you should have an idea about that thing and how it works.
Pre Requisites
Before starting Ethical Hacking, At least learn about the:
- Basics of computer fundamentals
- Networking
- Linux
- Programming
- Web Development
You can go into depth later on during your ethical hacking journey which will help you to get a solid grasp on these topics.
Be the Non-Complacent in your Learning Journey
Always learn about new technologies during your ethical hacking journey, and never think that you don’t need to learn about them. Ethical Hacking only helps you to learn about already disclosed ways to hack into anything. If you wanna find a new way to hack anything, you should be aware of the working of that thing in detail.
Fundamental Resources
Okay, I hope you got my points so let me share some resources with you. You can learn from anywhere you want, but focus on one thing and then move ahead. I am sharing only a few resources to keep it simple and straight to you to get started with ethical hacking. I recommend you take Google IT support certification course as well as Mike Meyers’ 2 LinkedIn courses, CompTIA A+ and Network+. You can check out the Neso Academy playlist on networking and operating system. You can use PowerCert Animated Videos channel as a complement to clear concepts through visualizations. Now for Linux, you can go for any resource you want, But I recommend the Linux journey website. If you wanna know just a very simple basics to get started in ethical hacking then you can simply go for Linux Fundamentals Module by TryHackMe.
Now Let’s come to the programming and web development resources. Free Code Camp and W3 Schools are the best resources to learn about programming concepts. You can start with bash or python and then go for C++ for more in-depth knowledge about programming stuff. Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and PHP to understand the working of the websites. For ethical hacking, You don’t need to be a professional developer just at least understand the programming concepts and develop your problem-solving skills. You can’t master every language, but you can understand them. Develop your problem-solving skills using the Think Like a Programmer book. Fireship is an amazing channel to keep you updated with the latest tech and gives a brief overview of them.
Simple Suggestions for Hacking
Now let’s discuss ethical hacking. You don’t need to master the discussed resources to start ethical hacking, you can go into depth after starting your ethical hacking journey whenever you need to learn anything just learn it. Now first and foremost recommended resource is the TryHackMe Platform, this platform can give you great content on cyber security and ethical hacking in one place so give it a great time and focus. CEH Condensed Notes Summarized by Adam Lumsden, this can give you a good knowledge about theoretical aspects as well as ethical hacking terminologies to be aware of. You can go to HackTheBox after getting the highest rank on TryHackMe because HackTheBox is not beginner friendly so first prepare yourself through TryHackMe. I have an extra free resource by CISCO to earn a badge from them, I didn’t learn from it but I think it’s better to mention this resource, in case you wanna learn from it.
InfoSec YouTubers
Now I am mentioning some selected YouTube Channels that can help you in your ethical hacking journey.
- The Cyber Mentor, one of the best infosec mentors has its own certification named PNPT on academy.tcm-sec.com
- John Hammond is one of the great infosec researchers.
- Hackersploit, an amazing infosec mentor, is one of the instructors in the INE courses.
- NullByte has an amazing and detailed level of content.
- NetworkChuck is a very beginner-friendly mentor to learn about new tech.
- DavidBombal is great at networking stuff and hacking.
Don’t Overwhelm Yourself
That video is just a simple roadmap for you to get a good grip on ethical hacking. At least learn pentesting, after that you can choose the direction of the specific field you want, just like bug bounty, malware analysis, cryptography, red teaming, blue teaming, SOC analysis, and so on. There are so many certifications are there just as EJPT, OSCP, CPENT, and many more. You can’t decide anything right now just go ahead and start your journey. You will find many things and many resources in this journey and can find the way to your destination. I don’t wanna overwhelm your mind because what you need, you will surely find in your way.
Some Tips
I have some productivity tips for your journey.
- Start working on your typing speed at least you should have 30 wpm because this will help a lot in typing Linux commands, programming, and many more things. You can practice your typing speed on the TypeRacer website and if you don’t know the right way to type just take some tutorials online from anywhere you want.
- Use any online software to take notes. The Notion is recommended and it also helps you to share and sync with other devices too.
- Use the Raindrop.io website to bookmark your website in a better way.
- Check your Twitter, LinkedIn, or discord in order to get updates on free certifications, giveaways, and many more.
- At last, Strong your Research Skills. It will help a lot in your journey.
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I hope you learned something new from this article. Feedback or Constructive Criticism is appreciated in the comment section below!
You can check out the Video version of this article on my YouTube channel
You can check out my other article on the topic: My Experience of the Free eJPTv2 Exam
