15 Best Ethical Hacking Books

As the benefits of the Internet have grown with its age, so have its dark side of it. With many perks, such as the distribution of information, easy communication, online shopping, and whatnot, criminal hacking has also increased.  Many companies, governments, and private citizens are concerned regarding information breaching. 

Ethical hacking then plays an important role in protecting the data and identifying the threat. To gain an understanding of ethical hacking along with some popular ethical hacking books keep reading further.

What is Ethical Hacking? 

In this era of the digital world, everything from communication to confidential details is digitialised. This has increased feasibility for the user, but has also increased the cyber-crime. Ethical hacking is a legal approach to protecting data by using various ethical hacking tools and techniques. 

Organisations realised that the best way to assess the threats is by having an independent computer security team. This team of ethical hackers will use the same techniques as the intruders, except they will neither steal any information nor will they damage the system. 

Who is an Ethical Hacker?

An ethical hacker is a professional who will use certain skills to evaluate the weakness in the security of the system. Any successful hacker needs to have strong programming and computer networking skills. Along with it, they should also have in-depth knowledge of the installation of hardware and software of the computer system, an understanding of how the security on various systems is maintained and should be able to install isolated networks for testing. Additionally, an ethical hacker should be trustworthy as they have the access to the client’s system and will come across some confidential information. 

Finally, a good ethical hacker should have patience as the evaluation might take days or weeks, and must be updated with the latest trends.

Ethical Hacking Courses 

• To become an ethical hacker, aspirants have to pursue their undergrad in Computer Science or Information Technology. For this, one can either opt for BCA Degree or B.Tech. Degree. 

• The program completion takes either 3 years for the BCA program or 4 years for the B.Tech program.

• To be eligible for Bachelor’s in ethical hacking course candidates must have completed their 12th with a minimum of 60%  from the science stream. 

• To be eligible for a Master’s in ethical course candidates must have completed their bachelor’s from recognised universities with a minimum of 60-65%. Some of the ethical hacking courses in India are: 

  -Certified Ethical Hacking Course - CEH v11 - Intellipaat 

  -CEH v11 - Certified Ethical Hacking Course - Simplilearn 

  -Comprehensive Ethical Hacking Course - Beginner to Advanced (M) - IIT Kanpur 

  -Learn Python & Ethical Hacking From Scratch - Udemy

  -Using Python for Ethical Hacking (M) - IIT Kanpur 

• The topics that are covered in the ethical hacking course include:

 -Cyber Ethics-Hacking Introduction

 -Google Hacking Database

                -Virus, Worms – Virus Analysis

                -Trojans & Backdoors

                -Sniffers & keyloggers

                 -Social Engineering

• Top universities that provides ethical hacking course are:

Institute Name	Course Offered
SRM University	MTech in Information Security and Computer Forensic
University of Madras	MSc in Cyber Forensics and Information Security
Institute of Information Security	CISSP Training Certified Professional Forensics Consultants Certified Information Security Consultant Certified Professional Hacker
HITS Chennai	BTech CSE (Cyber Security and Forensics)
IIIT Hyderabad	MTech CSE (Information Security)
DOEACC/NIELIT, Calicut	PG Diploma in Information Security and System Administration

• As the cyber crime is growing, many organisations be it private or government, are forced to hire individuals with expertise in ethical hacking. The special courses in ethical hacking along with a computer science degree will provide a promising career to the candidates. 

• A fresher in ethical hacking may earn anywhere from 4-5 Lakhs, while an experienced professional may earn up to 30 Lakhs. 

Best Ethical Hacking Books

The best way to advance your expertise in any field is by developing your skills in the same. Reading books will help students to acquire ethical hacking skills and accelerate their careers. Given below is the table of 15 best books to learn ethical hacking, for beginners as well as experienced professionals. 

Books Title	Author Name	Book Description	Latest Edition	Book Cost (Paperback)
Hacking: The Art Of Exploitation	Jon Erickson	The book explains the fundamentals of  C programming. Apart from it, the book also provides knowledge of many hacking techniques.	2nd edition	₹2,675
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing	Patrick Engebretson	The book provides a stepwise guide to perform the penetration test for an ethical hack.	2nd edition	₹2,661
The Hacker Playbook 2: Practical Guide to Penetration Testing	Peter Kim	The book gives the entire of hacking features with examples and advice from the experts.	1st edition	₹4,365
Penetration Testing	Georgia Weidman	The book brings out the best skills and techniques that any penetrator should have. Apart from this, the book also teaches about testing web applications for vulnerabilities, bypassing antivirus software, and more.	1st edition	₹2,876
The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook	Dafydd Stuttard	The book also deals with the critical topics of the web application. It also helps students to analyse the new technologies in the same.	2nd edition	₹4,295
Hacking	Gary Hall	The book covers the basic principles of hacking to the complex techniques which are suitable for both beginners as well as advanced learners.	–	₹1,164
Computer Hacking Beginners Guide	Alan T. Norman	The book gives guidance on how to protect yourself from the criminal hacker.	–	₹1,757
Hackers & Paintings: Big Ideas From the Computer Age	Paul Graham	The book readers to think, work, and develop the technology.	1st edition	₹1,570
Advanced Penetration Testing	Wil Allsopp	The book provides a combined approach to a high-security environment.	1st edition	₹3,073
The Hardware Hacker	Andrew Huang	The book is a collection of essays where the author shares his experience on manufacturing hardware.	1st edition	₹1,484
BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing	Vivek Ramachandran	The book helps in understanding the techniques of wireless attacks. This book includes every new attack on any organisation.	–	₹3,295
Hacking: The Underground Guide to Computer Hacking	Abraham K. White	The book provides instructions with commands and also offers the best tools for hacking.	–	₹3,893
Hacking the Hacker	Roger A. Grimes	The book provides knowledge of the world’s best white hat hackers, security researchers, writers, and leaders.	1st edition	₹1,587
Gray Hat Hacking	Daniel Regalado	The book helps readers to build their network, along with it, the book also offers  case studies on the latest ethical hacking skills.	5th edition	₹950
Hash Crack	Joshua Picolet	The book is a collection of all the methods to evaluate the network security of any organization.	–	₹1,519

Conclusion

Ethical Hacking scope is increasing gradually in many areas including corporate organisations, government sectors, health care, and entertainment. To have a successful career, one must develop job-focused skills to land a good opportunity. Reading books will provide insight to readers by providing valuable knowledge regarding the field, as well as help students or any professional to develop theoretical skills. 

Sunstone offers training programs to help individuals acquire job-ready skills. It also provides 200% placement assistance and interview guarantees to its students, which can be helpful in securing job offers.