Technology is advancing quickly and has a lot to offer. We all utilize various software tools and programs in our daily lives. Additionally, businesses and organizations rely on technology to run more efficiently and generate more income. The only issue with technological progress is data theft or intrusion attempts to corrupt the network. Therefore, it’s essential to recognize these risks and take precautions to avoid them altogether. One such area is ethical hacking, which offers solutions to block intrusion attempts and assists in identifying potential dangers.
What is Ethical Hacking?
A professional (ethical hacker) is granted extraordinary authority to access a computer, file, system, program, or data to hack it. This is an authorized or legal hacking practice. It is typically done to uncover potential data breaches and cyber attacks by finding software, network systems, infrastructure vulnerabilities, etc.
Data leaks are becoming a bigger worry on every level as the digital world changes so quickly. Data must always be protected because everything is shared online, including personal and financial information and information about friends and relatives. For various reasons, including conflicts of interest, national security violations, terrorist operations, etc., many hackers seek ways to steal personal data.
How Do I Pick the Best Hacking Book?
The best books for hacking should be chosen to maximize your learning process and satisfy your learning preferences and goals. Since every learner is different, ethical hacking books meet various requirements.
When searching for the best books about hacking, we took several important factors into account to cater to a broad spectrum of learners.
- Wide Range of Content: We looked for various subjects for different ability levels.
- Publish Date: We emphasize recent papers that feature the most recent advancements.
- Length: We searched for books of various lengths, ranging from summaries to in-depth manuals.
- Rating: We concentrated on works that readers considered beneficial, educational, and engaging.
- Format: For flexibility, we selected books in various forms (paper, eBook, and audiobook).
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Comprehensive Education: Books about ethical hacking frequently thoroughly discuss numerous cybersecurity topics, resources, and methods. They can help you identify weaknesses, exploit them, and implement security measures.
- Structured Learning Path: Many books provide a systematic learning route from fundamental ideas to more complex subjects. This might be useful for novices who want a step-by-step method to understand complicated ideas.
- In-Depth Knowledge: In-depth insights into cybersecurity can be found in high-quality literature. They can explore the underlying technologies, protocols, and procedures, providing you with a solid basis for comprehending security risks and responses.
- Hands-On Exercises: Practical exercises, laboratories, and examples are frequently included in ethical hacking books so that you can put the ideas you’ve learned into practice in a safe setting. For the development of practical skills, this hands-on experience is essential.
- Reference Material: Books can be helpful resources you can consult if you encounter a particular problem or need to brush up on a particular method.
- Authoritative Sources: Many books about ethical hacking are produced by subject matter experts with practical knowledge of cybersecurity and penetration testing. Learning from seasoned experts can be a huge benefit.
Cons:
- Rapidly Changing Field: Cybersecurity is a field that is continually changing, and new attack methods and weaknesses are frequently discovered. Augmenting your study with current web resources is crucial because books quickly become outdated.
- Lack of Interactivity: Although they can teach theoretical knowledge, books are static tools that may need more interactivity than online courses or practical laboratories can.
- Limited Practical Experience: While practical exercises are frequently included in ethical hacking publications, they might need to accurately reflect cybersecurity difficulties’ dynamic and ever-changing nature in the real world.
- Technical Depth: Some publications’ assumed levels of technical understanding can be daunting for beginners. It’s crucial to select a book that corresponds to your present level of expertise.
- No Feedback Mechanism: Books don’t provide rapid feedback like mentors or interactive online platforms. This means that until much later, you might not realize if you’re making mistakes or misinterpreting concepts.
- Legal and Ethical Concerns: A thorough awareness of moral and legal limits is necessary for ethical hacking. Books may not always sufficiently explain these issues, which could cause readers who don’t completely understand the ramifications to act destructively.
Features of Ethical Hacking Books:
- Ethical hacking books frequently begin with an overview of cybersecurity’s core ideas, such as the value of safeguarding systems and data, comprehending the threat landscape, and the many sorts of cyberattacks.
- The significance of ethical and legal hacking techniques is emphasized in these books’ explanations of the distinction between ethical hacking and malevolent hacking.
- The ethical and legal ramifications of hacking are frequently covered in books. This covers talks on pertinent rules, laws, and policies that ethical hackers should follow.
- The explanation of the penetration testing methodology, which includes the actions an ethical hacker takes to find vulnerabilities and evaluate security flaws in systems, takes up a sizeable amount of these works.
- Networking protocols, operating systems, and other fundamental technologies that are essential for comprehending security risks will be covered for readers.
10 Best Ethical Hacking Books:
Therefore, if you want to become an ethical hacker, these ten books will introduce you to the field and help you find answers to your cybersecurity-related problems.
1. Getting Started Becoming a Master Hacker:
Anyone thinking about a career in cybersecurity will find this tutorial-style handbook a great resource. Based on our observations, it offers in-depth lectures on crucial tools and methods utilized in the industry and insights into the hacker mindset.
In addition to providing step-by-step tutorials on essential computer hacking tools and techniques, the author painstakingly gives a historical and legal viewpoint on hacking. Reconnaissance, password cracking, vulnerability scanning, Metasploit 5, antivirus evasion, Python, and social engineering are just a few of the topics it covers, which we found to be quite a few.
It also includes a case study on the NSA’s EternalBlue virus, which looks at malware hacking from vulnerability analysis, exploitation, packet-level analysis, and Python reverse engineering.
2. RTFM:
The expression RTFM (read the friendly manual, right?!) has presumably been heard by anybody in IT who has had to learn a new skill. Well, this book kept popping up on our radar after we did a lot of research on the top hacking books. According to our research, it serves as an excellent resource for red team operators, offering a variety of powerful commands and methods for both offensive and defensive security responsibilities.
With over 290 new instructions and techniques taken directly from the field notes of multiple Red Team missions, this Second Edition of the book has undergone a comprehensive rewrite. It describes tradecraft considerations, discusses contemporary operating systems, and adds a new MacOS part.
Overall, it comes highly recommended for anybody interested in detection engineering, including blue-team members and red-team pros. We advise purchasing the paperback version because it has plenty of space for notes, allowing you to keep track of your unique ideas.
3. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker:
What better approach to studying for the CEH exam than reading one of the top hacking books? According to our research, this book is ideal for professionals looking for an ethical hacking reference for the workplace and students trying to pass the CEH exam.
This manual, created by a cybersecurity expert at Deloitte, was revised in 2021 to reflect the CEH v11 exam objectives. It covers the principles of ethical hacking, reconnaissance, scanning, sniffing, attacking systems, breaking into web servers and apps, hacking wireless networks, breaking into mobile and IoT security, cloud computing security, encryption, social engineering, physical security, and penetration testing.
4. Practical IoT Hacking:
According to our study, this one is the best book on hacking for anyone wishing to learn more about IoT security testing and acquire the skills needed to safeguard these increasingly commonplace gadgets.
It provides in-depth coverage of attacks against embedded IoT devices and RFID systems and is written by a skilled team of security professionals who show you how to test and exploit IoT systems and devices.
This manual assists you in identifying security weaknesses, developing testing procedures, performing various types of attacks, and working with affordable, easily accessible tools to practice the skills taught. It places a significant emphasis on real-life exploits and hands-on learning.
5. Hacking Connected Cars:
This extensive field guide goes deep into the connected and autonomous vehicle worlds. Our research demonstrates that this book will help you remain ahead in the quickly developing subject of automobile cybersecurity by giving you valuable insights into locating and addressing vulnerabilities affecting these cyber-physical systems.
This is one of the most significant hacking books since it offers a detailed lesson on how to carry out penetration testing, threat modeling, and risk evaluations of telematics control units and infotainment systems. The book’s author, Alissa Knight, is an expert in risk management and penetration testing of IoT devices and connected cars.
Additionally, you’ll discover how Bluetooth, GSM, and wireless networking flaws can be used to compromise the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of connected cars. It’s a vital tool for security experts, academics, and suppliers who want to protect connected automobiles without compromising their connectivity.
6. The Pentester BluePrint:
According to our data, this is one of the most widely read ethical hacker books to date. It’s ideal for IT professionals, newcomers to the information security field, and anyone looking to enter the penetration testing industry.
The friendly and approachable writing style of this book is what distinguishes it. The writers masterfully walk you through both fundamental and sophisticated concepts necessary for a career in identifying weaknesses in apps, networks, and systems. It covers the fundamentals of pen testing, how to become a hacker, educational options, certifications, and how to get real-world experience.
7. Real-World Bug Hunting:
Our review of this book showed that it’s the best choice for those just getting started in cybersecurity who want to comprehend web security flaws and learn how to efficiently find, exploit, and report them.
The book, written by ethical hacker and self-taught developer Peter Yaworski, presents the most prevalent kinds of vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting, unsecured direct object references, and server-side request forgery, using actual case studies.
Each chapter focuses on a different vulnerability and includes several reported bug bounties. This method shows you how to submit successful vulnerability reports and how attackers exploit flaws.
8. Hardware Hacking Handbook:
After carefully examining reader feedback, we discovered this book is ideal for industry engineers, students, and electronics hobbyists.
It investigates the realm of embedded devices (such as those in our credit cards, cars, and phones) and demonstrates how various attack types can impact our day-to-day security. It intends to assist you in comprehending and simulating hardware threats to enhance embedded device security.
The authors walk you through practical experiments utilizing genuine hardware while providing insights into assaults on embedded systems that have actually occurred. Before going on to more complex subjects, they thoroughly explain the attack trees, threat modeling, and embedded device design.
9. Black Hat Python, 2nd Edition:
Our team learned that the code for Python 3. x was just added to this best-selling manual (over 100,000 copies have been sold). It’s ideal for security experts, hobbyists interested in creating potent hacking tools, and intermediate Python programmers.
It explores the more sinister side of Python programming, including network sniffers, email credential theft, brute forcing directories, mutation fuzzes, virtual machine research, and creating stealthy trojans, just like the original.
To keep you current with the most recent methods, the updated version includes bit shifting, code hygiene, offensive forensics, enhanced descriptions of major Python libraries, and offensive computer hacking methodologies.
10. Hacking APIs:
This high-level option serves as a comprehensive guide for web application hackers. Our research reveals that it’s intended to give you the knowledge and abilities to evaluate the security of your web apps, participate in bug bounty programs, and do penetration testing on APIs.
It explains how REST and GraphQL APIs work and exemplifies how to set up a productive API testing lab using Burp Suite and Postman. Additionally, you’ll learn how to undertake typical attacks and get through defenses while using tools like Kiterunner and OWASP Amass for reconnaissance, endpoint analysis, and fuzzing.
This book guarantees that you’ll obtain practical experience in various API attack strategies, enabling you to confidently apply your newly acquired knowledge in actual circumstances. It includes nine guided labs that target purposefully vulnerable APIs.
Conclusion:
The top books for beginners on ethical hacking are listed in this article. Whether just getting started or hoping to improve your abilities, these books will provide the foundation to become a superb ethical hacker. Enrolling in KnowledgeHut’s Cyber Security classes will also help you advance your cybersecurity profession similarly. Start a career in ethical hacking right away.
FAQs:
Which book is the best for teaching beginners ethical hacking?
The following list includes some of the top books on ethical hacking for beginners:
- Hacking: A Beginners’ Guide to Penetration Testing, Basic Security, and Computer Hacking
- Hacking: Technique For Exploitation
- Metasploit: The Guide for Penetration Testers
- Penetration Testing: An Introduction to Hacking with Practice.
- The Hacker Playbook 3: Penetration testing practical guide.
Which certification in ethical hacking is the best?
The discipline of ethical hacking offers a wide variety of certification programs. However, one has to pick a certification that is widely acknowledged, and that begins its course with fundamental ideas. The Knowledge Hut certification in ethical hacking is among the best and most well-regarded.
Can I learn ethical hacking on my own?
Yes, you can teach yourself how to hack, is the quick response.
When you learn any technology on your own, you tend to delve deeper, producing clear notions. Self-taught hackers also succeed at their employment rapidly thanks to their learning abilities. By enrolling in some of the best courses for ethical hacking, you may also learn more about the principles in depth. It will also be helpful to read quality literature on ethical hacking.
Is ethical hacking simple to do?
Even though it isn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be fair to call it simple. To become an expert hacker, you require professional training, appropriate study materials, and ongoing practice. However, things do get easier once you get helpful assistance.
