Hello and welcome to this Learning Path, An introduction to ethical hacking.

An ethical hacker is a skilled professional who understands and knows how to look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in target systems and uses the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker, but in a lawful and legitimate manner, to assess the security posture of a target system.

If you are looking to become an ethical hacker or have an interest in security and would like to gain an understanding on how to protect your environment through different ethical hacking methods and techniques, then this Learning Path is for you.

Throughout this Learning Path, you will be introduced to a number of practical labs and tailored cheat sheets for the most popular ethical hacking tools, including: various types of footprinting and reconnaissance tools; network scanning techniques and scanning tools; enumeration techniques and enumeration tools; and sequel injection attacks and injection detection tools.

As a prerequisite to this Learning Path, you should possess a basic familiarity of Linux and Windows OS and working knowledge of TCPIP and command line utilities.

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Before we dive into the different tools and techniques used in ethical hacking within this learning path, I want to begin by highlighting the Computer Misuse Act known as the CMA, which highlights four key acts which are illegal when dealing with unauthorized access to data.

Please do be aware that this act is only applicable in the UK.

OK, let's get started.