Free Ethical Hacking Courses: Pathway to Upskill In Cybersecurity

No matter how costly and swanky your digital infrastructure may be, lack of well-inspected and highly sophisticated safety measures will make them vulnerable to malicious hacking. This is where ethical hacking steps into the picture, ensuring proactive defense of digital assets, networks and applications and also compliance with regulations like GDPR or HIPPA. From this standpoint, free ethical hacking courses can ensure attainment of foundational knowledge in cybersecurity and hands-on experience with tools like Wireshark and Nmap.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Call ethical hacking a legal practice unlike malicious hacking in which hackers target network infrastructure or digital assets causing data breach and reputational loss of victim organisations. In ethical hacking, professional white-hat hackers or cybersecurity professionals take a thorough inspection of networks or systems identifying loopholes or security vulnerabilities and fixing them before any event of malicious hacking may cause detrimental damages to the target systems. In simple words, ethical hacking is a legal practice of ensuring that systems within a company or an organisation are safe from cyber-attackers.

Read Also: What Is Ethical Hacking and How Does It Work?

Does Ethical Hacking Happen Before or After Cyber Attack?

No, ethical hacking doesn't happen after a system has been hacked. In fact, it is a proactive defense tactic in which authorized cybersecurity experts check and fix any vulnerabilities of existing systems. This ensures proper safety of sensitive information and potential data breach.

What Do Professional Ethical Hacking Experts Do?

A white-hat hacker or professional ethical hacking expert performs lots of safety-related protocols and measures, ensuring vulnerable systems are fixed to defend against dangerous cyberattacks effectively. Here are some of the key responsibilities performed by these experts:

• They carry out vulnerability assessment using network scanning and code review to identify any security lapses or faults.

• They conduct penetration testing by launching a mock cyberattack to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in computer systems, networks or web applications.

• Ethical hacking experts also document vulnerabilities and recommend actionable insights to fix security faults.

What Is the Importance of Free Ethical Hacking Courses?

With cybersecurity hacks getting more sophisticated as hackers use AI-powered tools to penetrate network infrastructure to cause data breach, professionals in the field of ethical hacking are sought-after massively. Top-notch global companies like Google, IBM, and Facebook, among other technology, finance and cybersecurity firms employ professional ethical hacking experts. Therefore, free ethical hacking courses present the golden opportunities of building fundamental yet crucial cybersecurity skills, enabling learners to protect data from potential breaches and also build a career in job roles like junior penetration tester, security analyst, vulnerability assessment specialist, etc.

Are Free Ethical Hacking Courses Better Than the Paid Ones?

Free ethical hacking courses are designed for beginners who want to build foundational understanding about the cybersecurity world without paying for it. These beginner-friendly and flexible courses also provide hands-on exposure and are building blocks to develop advanced skills in cybersecurity or penetration testing later in paid courses. As a matter of fact, free ethical hacking courses are excellent choice based on the following reasons -

• You are just trying to explore the cybersecurity landscape.

• You want to learn basics about networking, Linux or OWASP vulnerabilities (critical security risks of web apps).

• You prefer self-paced learning based on your daily priorities or schedules.

On the other hand, paid courses in ethical hacking are useful if you want to get a detailed understanding of the cybersecurity world. Such courses come with facilities like round the clock support by industry-experienced trainers, mentorship, and career support.

Paid courses are excellent based on the following features -

• Structured learning pathways

• Advanced labs, real-world simulations

• Module-wise guided approach by instructors

• Recognised certifications

Top FREE Ethical Hacking Courses without Paying for Them

A Practical Introduction to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one of the core components of modern ethical hacking courses. In this free, beginner-friendly course, learners will be exposed to Cloud essentials such as definition of cloud computing, rapid elasticity, resource pooling, etc. Depending on the institution, some free courses will also help you learn IaaS options including virtual machines on shared physical servers, deploying an app on IBM Bluemix PaaS, building blocks of cloud computing and its core components like IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and XaaS.

Available on: Codered, Udemy

Ethical Hacking: Basics (Kali 2021)

In this free course, learners will get foundational knowledge about ethical hacking, penetration testing, overview of tools in Kali, setting up Kali Linux, and introduction to attacking networks and breaking passwords. This course is beginner's guide to getting started in Kali and is broken down in several sections of ethical hacking processes. Step by step walkthroughs of how to install Kali using VMware are also mentioned in this guided journey for students. It teaches key configuration settings like how to configure networks and manage services in Kali. Excellent course for learners looking for guided understanding of ethical hacking or considering making their own penetration testing lab.

Available on - Udemy

Ethical Hacker - Cisco Networking Academy

This free ethical hacking course is a great learning pathway for students to build a solid understanding of offensive security. Attain proficiency in the art of scoping, executing and reporting security vulnerability assessments. You will gain skills in areas like:

• Exploiting networks/applications.

• Ethical hacking.

• Vulnerability assessment and scanning.

• Social engineering, reporting, and penetration testing

• Pentesting Tools.

• IoT security.

Available on - Cisco networking academy

Python Fundamentals for Beginners

Python is a very prominent programming language in ethical hacking and therefore, this free, beginner-friendly course is a great addition to your skills in this academic pathway. This course teaches essentials of Python, starting from core concepts like data types, variables, operators and loops. Learn how to install Python, how to run Python scripts in terminal and setup PyCharm IDE. Learners are exposed to Jupyter Notebook, and object-oriented programming (OOP) principles as the learning process advances. The OOP will help you learn structure and organise code efficiently. Also, the course teaches you exception handling and file management in Python, and advanced topics like Regular Expressions for text manipulation and pattern matching.

Available on - Great Learning

Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking - Certification Prep

This academic course prepares students to pass industry-leading penetration testing certifications like CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker). In this course, learners are exposed to the introductory part of ethical hacking, reconnaissance techniques, systems hacking phases and attack techniques, network and perimeter hacking, and web application hacking, among other skills including wireless network hacking, cloud computing and cryptography. To build practical skills in learners, the course offers in its virtual lab basics of open source intelligence (OSINT), NMAP Basics, Local host enumeration, vulnerability scanner basics, etc.

Available on - Cybrary

Ethical Hacking With Hak5 Devices

In this free, beginner-friendly course, students can learn the importance of physical security, Hak5 rubber ducky, Hak5 Bashbunny, Hak5 O.MG cable, etc. The learners are also exposed to the application of Hak5 USB Rubber Ducky and O.MG cables to launch various attacks including reverse shell attacks using Netcat, plus different ethical hacking techniques.

Available on - Udemy

Hacking Academy - How to Monitor & Intercept Transmitted Data

This free ethical hacking course paves the learning journey of students in how to intercept data in a network, monitor transmitted data and detect intrusion. In addition, learners will be exposed to a very powerful and versatile ethical hacking tool called Wireshark. The course is ideal for hacking enthusiasts, IT security beginners & professionals, and those interested in ethical hacking.

Available on  - Udemy

Benefits of Free Ethical Hacking Courses

From being beginner-friendly to skill development without monetary outgo, the value of ethical hacking courses is profound. Here are some key insights pronouncing the benefits of such free courses.

Skill Development

Irrespective of being free of any charge, FREE ethical hacking courses contain core essentials of cybersecurity principles, including basics of Python and Cloud Computing components like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. These provide the foundational layer of skill development, enabling learners to understand ethical hacking better.

Learning Upgrade

Some may argue that free ethical courses do not merit the kind of proficiency as found in paid courses. But they are taking the side of premium courses due to the oversight of what free ones can offer. In fact, free courses in ethical hacking are solid starts in laying the ground-up understanding of what involves ethical hacking to protect digital assets and network infrastructure from cyber threats. Once the basic understanding is built, learners can feel confident in handling ethical hacking better and then they can opt for paid advanced courses to improve their expertise in ethical hacking more.

Job Growth 

Free ethical hacking courses build the foundational understanding and essentials in ethical hacking, enabling students to stand qualified for career roles such as cybersecurity analyst, penetration tester, etc.

Concluding Statements

Free ethical hacking courses come equipped with high-value foundational growth in knowledge and skills associated with ethical hacking. From understanding programming languages like Python and cloud computing to building skills in penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and recommending fixes related to security faults, free ethical hacking courses are extremely valuable for learners to explore this academic pathway and make themselves job ready for different career roles including cybersecurity analysts, penetration testers, etc.

In fact, free ethical hacking courses are an academic overture to advanced courses for learners.