Learn to hack in easy steps

This book outlines computer hacker tricks and techniques — in plain English — to assess the security of your own information systems, find security vulnerabilities, and fix the vulnerabilities before malicious and criminal hackers have an opportunity to take advantage of them. This hacking is the professional, aboveboard, and legal type of security testing — which I call ethical hacking throughout the book. Computer and network security is a complex subject and an ever-moving target. You must stay on top of it to ensure your information is protected from the bad guys. You can implement all the security technologies and other best practices possible, and your information systems may be secure — as far as you know. However, until you understand how hackers think and apply that knowledge to assess your systems from a hacker’s-eye view, you can’t get a true sense of how secure your information really is. Ethical hacking — sometimes referred to as penetration testing or white-hat hacking.