Penetration Testing For Dummies

Chapter 15

Ten Tips to Refine Your Pen Testing Skills

In this chapter I cover ten tips to help you refine your pen testing skills as you continue in your career or education.

Continue Your Education

Keep learning. Study often and do not limit the scope of your studies. You can get by in your career by learning the basics, getting the tools, and running them. However, you need to learn the finer details of information technology systems, networks, and services and how they are secured or threatened.

The ways you can continue your education are unlimited. However, if on a budget (or have resources to access resources within a budget), here are a few ways you can help yourself:

• Use your library. To access the Internet, books, publications, magazines, and other materials, use your public library system. Some libraries even hold IT classes, and in some cases, even security classes.
• Use the Internet. You can find many sites to help with pen testing, learning about IT, security, and many other topics. (I suggest a few in Chapter 16.) You can gain access to tools and sites that allow you to learn how to conduct penetration testing, and learn operating systems and other valuable programs.
• Build a test PC. If you can gain access to a PC or laptop that you can turn into a test system, acquire it and use it. There are many companies likely have an older system laying around unused that you can turn into a pen test toolkit.
• Use virtualization. Similar to the extra PC or laptop, you can ...