Understanding how systems are secured and how they can be breached is critical for robust cybersecurity in an interconnected digital world. The book offers a clear, practical roadmap for mastering ethical hacking techniques, enabling you to identify and fix vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.
This book guides you through the entire hacking lifecycle, starting with fundamental rules and engagement phases, then moving into extensive reconnaissance using public data, search engines, and social networks to gather intelligence. You will learn active network scanning for live systems, port identification, and vulnerability detection, along with advanced enumeration techniques like NetBIOS, SNMP, and DNS. It also proceeds to explain practical system, exploitation, covering password cracking, social engineering, and specialized tools. It also includes dedicated sections on Wi-Fi network hacks, followed by crucial post-exploitation strategies for maintaining access and meticulously covering your tracks to remain undetected.
This book helps you to properly protect data and systems by means of obvious explanations, practical recipes, and an emphasis on offensive tactics. Perfect for novices or experienced professionals with a networking background, it is your go-to tool for mastering cybersecurity and keeping hackers at bay, because slowing them down is the name of the game.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
● Use Nmap to scan networks and spot vulnerabilities in a quick manner.
● Crack passwords with tools like Hashcat and John.
● Exploit systems using Metasploit to test your defenses.
● Secure Wi-Fi by hacking it with Aircrack-ng first.
● Think like a hacker to predict and block attacks.
● Learn maintaining system access by hiding tracks and creating backdoors.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book is for IT administrators and security professionals aiming to master hacking techniques for improved cyber defenses. To fully engage with these strategies, you should be familiar with fundamental networking and hacking technology concepts.
Dale Meredith is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified EC-Council Instructor (CEI), and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) who's been working in IT and cybersecurity for over 20 years. Before stepping into teaching full-time, he served as CTO for an ISP, where he learned how to manage real-world tech problems under pressure. This hands-on experience shows in his teaching; he doesn't just explain tools, he shows people how they actually work in real environments.
Dale is known for making complicated topics easy to understand and, just as important, easy to remember. His students appreciate his clear explanations, practical demos, and his no-nonsense approach that still manages to keep things fun. He is taught security teams at Fortune 500 companies, trained university faculty and students around the world, worked with the Department of Homeland Security, and delivered courses for multiple branches of the U.S. military.
He is also created dozens of online video courses on ethical hacking, penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability discovery, and more, reaching thousands of learners across platforms like Pluralsight. Dale does not just teach what is in the textbooks; he keeps up with current threats and tools, and he regularly brings new material into his teachings.
When he is not teaching, you might catch Dale on stage at cybersecurity conferences, talking about everything from malware to AI-assisted hacking to how Hollywood gets it wrong. No matter the audience, his goal is the same: help people understand how hackers think so they can defend better.
Dale believes in training that is real, direct, and useful. Whether you are watching a course, sitting in his classroom, or attending one of his talks, you will walk away knowing exactly what to do next—and why it matters.
