A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
This book could not have been written without the
collaboration of several
key people.
First, I want to thank and acknowledge Liz Chadwick for proposing this
book and being the primary editor of its content. Her persistence and dedi-
cation have made this book possible.
Second, I want to acknowledge Bill Pollock, publisher of No Starch Press,
for believing in and backing this book.
Third, I want to acknowledge the diligent
efforts of my technical
reviewer, Cliff Janzen, for making certain the technical content in this
book is accurate.
Any remaining errors or omissions are solely my fault.
Finally, I want to thank and acknowledge all the dedicated professionals
at No Starch Press for their efforts to bring to book to completion and to
market. Thank you.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Hacking is the
most important skill set of
the 21st century! I don’t make that state-
ment lightly. Events in recent years seem to
reaffirm this statement with every morning’s
headline. Nations are spying on each other to gain
secrets, cyber criminals are stealing billions of dollars,
digital worms
demanding ransoms are being released, adversaries are influencing each
other’s elections, and combatants are taking down each other’s utilities.
These are all the work of hackers, and their influence
over our increasingly
digital world is just beginning to be felt.
I decided to write this book after working with tens of thousands of aspir-
ing hackers through Null-Byte,
https://www.hackers-arise.com/, and nearly every
branch of the US military and intelligence agencies (NSA, DIA, CIA, and
FBI). These experiences have taught me that many aspiring hackers have
had little
or no experience with Linux, and this lack of experience is the pri-
mary barrier to their starting the journey to becoming professional hackers.
Almost all the best hacker tools are written in Linux, so some basic Linux
skills are a prerequisite to becoming a professional hacker. I have written this
book to help aspiring hackers get over this barrier.
xxii
Introduction
Hacking is an elite profession within the IT field. As such,
it requires an
extensive and detailed understanding of IT concepts and technologies. At
the most fundamental level, Linux is a requirement. I strongly suggest you
invest time and energy into using and understanding it if you want to make
hacking and information security your career.
This book is not intended for the experienced hacker or the experienced
Linux admin. Instead, it is intended for those who
want to get started along
the exciting path of hacking, cybersecurity, and pentesting. It is also intended
not as a complete treatise on Linux or hacking but rather a starting point
into these worlds. It begins with the essentials
of Linux and extends into
some basic scripting in both bash and Python. Wherever appropriate, I have
tried to use examples from the world of hacking to teach Linux principles.
In this introduction, we’ll look at the growth of ethical hacking for infor-
mation security, and I’ll take you through the process
of installing a virtual
machine so you can install Kali Linux on your system without disturbing the
operating system you are already running.
