Ethical Hacking Essentials (EHE)

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ethical-hacking-essentials-ehe

Introduction

# Course Review: Ethical Hacking Essentials (EHE) on Coursera In the ever-evolving domain of cybersecurity, staying ahead of cyber threats and vulnerabilities is more crucial than ever. If you are looking to break into the field of cybersecurity, Coursera's "Ethical Hacking Essentials (EHE)" offers an excellent foundational course. This review will delve into its structure, content, and effectiveness in preparing learners for a career in cybersecurity. ## Overview Ethical Hacking Essentials serves as a comprehensive introduction to ethical hacking and penetration testing. Designed for beginners, the course covers essential concepts of computer and network security, including various attack vectors, vulnerabilities, and effective countermeasures. The course aims to equip learners with practical skills and knowledge necessary to confront the challenges posed by increasing cyber threats. ## Course Structure The EHE syllabus is well-organized, comprising key modules that progressively build your understanding of ethical hacking. Below is a brief overview of the modules included in this course: 1. **Information Security Fundamentals**: This module introduces the foundational concepts of information security and explains the motivations behind attacks. 2. **Ethical Hacking Fundamentals**: Understand the role of ethical hackers and the methodologies they employ, including the cyber kill chain. 3. **Information Security Threats and Vulnerability Assessment**: Learn to differentiate between various security threats and vulnerabilities that can exist within a network. 4. **Password Cracking Techniques and Countermeasures**: Explore common password weaknesses, cracking techniques, and how to develop stronger password policies. 5. **Social Engineering Techniques and Countermeasures**: Gain insights into social engineering tactics and the psychological strategies employed by attackers. 6. **Network Level Attacks and Countermeasures**: This module examines various network attack strategies and the necessary countermeasures. 7. **Web Application Attacks and Countermeasures**: Investigate vulnerabilities in web applications, including SQL injection attacks and their defenses. 8. **Wireless Attacks and Countermeasures**: Discover the unique challenges posed by wireless networks and how to secure them. 9. **Mobile Attacks and Countermeasures**: Understand the potential threats to mobile devices and learn safe browsing practices. 10. **IoT and OT Attacks and Countermeasures**: This module covers the emerging threats associated with IoT devices and operational technology, emphasizing security measures. 11. **Cloud Computing Threats and Countermeasures**: Learn how to navigate the security landscape of cloud architecture and understand the inherent risks. 12. **Penetration Testing Fundamentals**: Understand the critical nature of penetration testing and how it can reveal security weaknesses. ## Hands-On Experience One of the standout features of the Ethical Hacking Essentials course is its emphasis on practical, hands-on experience. This is crucial in the cybersecurity field, as theoretical knowledge alone isn't enough to handle real-world incidents. The course incorporates practical exercises that allow learners to apply their knowledge, simulating attack and defense scenarios. This hands-on approach significantly boosts learners' confidence and capability in applying the concepts they have learned. ## Recommendations I highly recommend the Ethical Hacking Essentials course for anyone interested in starting a career in cybersecurity. The course is well-structured, and the progressive learning pathway makes it accessible whether you have a technical background or are a complete beginner. Here are some specific reasons why you should consider enrolling: - **Industry-Relevant Skills**: The course equips learners with critical, job-ready skills that are in high demand by employers. - **Flexibility**: Being an online course, you can learn at your own pace, enabling a balance between your studies and other responsibilities. - **Expert Instructors**: The course is taught by experienced professionals in the field of cybersecurity, ensuring that the content is credible and up-to-date. - **Certification**: Completing the course earns you a certificate, which can enhance your resume and LinkedIn profile, providing you with a tangible validation of your skills. ## Conclusion In conclusion, Coursera's Ethical Hacking Essentials course is an invaluable resource for aspiring cybersecurity professionals. It strikes a perfect balance between theory and hands-on practice, making it an ideal starting point for anyone interested in understanding the world of ethical hacking and penetration testing. Dive into this course to build a solid foundation in cybersecurity—your future self will thank you!

Syllabus

Information Security Fundamentals

Attackers break into systems for various reasons. Therefore, it is important to understand how, and why, malicious hackers attack and exploit systems. This module provides an insight into the different elements of information security.

Ethical hacking allows organizations to objectively analyze their current security posture. Nowadays, the role of an ethical hacker is gaining prominence. An ethical hacker intentionally penetrates the security infrastructure to identify and fix security loopholes. It provides an insight into cyber kill chain methodology, hacking concepts, and hacker classes.

Recent trends in cyber security breaches illustrate that no system or network is immune to attacks. It is important to understand the difference between a security threat and a vulnerability. Security threats are incidents that negatively impact the organization’s IT infrastructure, whereas vulnerabilities are security gapsor flaws in a system or network that make threats possible, tempting hackers to exploit them. This module provides an insight into cyber security threats and vulnerability assessment.

Weak password selection has been the most common security weakness faced by organizations and individuals in recent times. Attackers use many sophisticated techniques and tools to crack passwords and gain access to critical systems and networks. This module provides an in-depth understanding of password cracking techniques and the corresponding defensive measures that can help individuals and organizations create strong password policies and protect personal or corporate information.

This module provides an overview of social engineering. Although it focuses on fallacies and advocates effective countermeasures, the possible methods of extracting information from another human being rely on attackers’ ingenuity. The features of these techniques make them an art, but the psychological nature of some of them makes them a science. The bottom line is that there is no ready defense against social engineering; only constant vigilance can circumvent the social engineering techniques used by attackers. This module provides an insight into human-based, computer-based, and mobile-based social engineering techniques.

Attackers use various attack strategies to compromise the security of a network, potentially causing disruption, damage, and loss to organizations and individuals. Therefore, it is important for security professionals to have an understanding of these attack strategies because such an understanding is essential for protecting the network from various attacks. It provides insight into various network-level attacks, such as sniffing, DoS attacks, session hijacking, etc. This module also familiarizes students with various network security countermeasures.

Web applications are becoming increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated threats and attack vectors. This module familiarizes students with web-server attacks and countermeasures. It discusses the web-application architecture and vulnerability stack. This module also familiarizes students with various web-application threats, attacks, and countermeasures. In addition, it discusses different types of structured query language (SQL) injection attacks and countermeasures.

Wireless networks are cheaper and easier to maintain than wired networks. An attacker can easily compromise a wireless network without proper security measures or an appropriate network configuration. Because high-security mechanisms for wireless networks may be expensive. This module describes wireless networks, wireless network standards, wireless encryption algorithms, wireless-network attack techniques, and countermeasures to protect wireless networks.

Believing that surfing the Internet on mobile devices is safe, many users fail to enable their existing security software. The popularity of smartphones and their moderately strong security mechanisms have made them attractive targets for attackers. This module explains the potential threats to mobile platforms and provides guidelines for using mobile devices securely.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from the convergence of wireless technology, microelectromechanical systems, micro-services, and the Internet. IoT has introduced a range of new technologies with associated capabilities into our daily lives. The main objective of this module is to explain the potential threats to IoT and OT platforms and to provide guidelines for securing IoT devices and OT infrastructure from evolving threats and attacks.

Cloud computing is an emerging technology that delivers computing services, such as online business applications, online data storage, and webmail over the Internet. Cloud implementation enables a distributed workforce, reduces organization expenses, provides data security, etc. This module provides insight into cloud computing concepts, container technology, cloud computing threats, and cloud computing security to meet the security requirements.

With the drastic increase in cyberattacks, it is important for organizations to conduct regular penetration tests to reveal hidden vulnerabilities and weaknesses in their IT infrastructure and to ensure the effectiveness of current cybersecurity controls. Penetration testing helps organizations in developing and implementing proactive security measures beforehand and in thwarting evolving threats. This module discusses the importance of penetration testing in an organization and explains the crucial role that a tester plays in identifying vulnerabilities.