"Pentesting -- short for penetration testing -- can simulate cybersecurity attacks on a network or system to find and exploit weaknesses before hackers do. The thing is, until a vulnerability is found, it cannot be patched. Those vulnerabilities could be as simple as weak user passwords or as complicated as vulnerable OS kernels. Without specialized software, how would you ever know about those vulnerabilities? You probably wouldn't."
"The word can bring to mind TV shows and movies in which a roomful of tech elites, sporting headsets and staring at massive arrays of screens, are trying to track down who did what to whom. Whew. In reality, cybersecurity isn't always about rooms deep within the bowels of unmarked, windowless buildings, populated with women and men who are Sheldon Cooper-level brilliant."
Cybersecurity can involve individual users testing their local networks and machines for vulnerabilities rather than only large, specialized teams. Penetration testing simulates attacks on networks and systems to find and exploit weaknesses so they can be patched. Kali Linux and Parrot OS are Debian-based Linux distributions built for penetration testing. Kali Linux is widely associated with pentesting, while Parrot OS offers both pentesting-focused and general-purpose editions. Both distributions can be downloaded and installed for free. Vulnerabilities range from weak user passwords to flaws in operating system kernels, and specialized tools are required to discover and remediate them.
Read at ZDNET
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