Introduction to Network Security

This world is changing rapidly with advancing network technologies. Unfortunately, sometimes the convenience of technology can outpace its security and safety. Technologies such as the Internet of Things are ushering in a new era of network communication. There are some who predict that by the year 2020 over 50 billion devices will be connected by the Internet of Things. Technologies such as the Internet of Things have created a critical need for network security professionals. There is currently a great shortfall within the network security field. We want to help change that by writing this book. We also want to change the mindset in the field of network security. Most current cyber security professionals practice defensive and passive security. They mostly focus on mitigation and forensic tactics to analyze the aftermath of an attack. We want to change this mindset to one of offensive security. Becoming a threat hunter and aggressively going after network attacks is how we want those who read this book to think. By writing this book, we will teach you how to become a threat hunter. We strongly believe that learning offensive security will help restore some balance to the networking world. The volume of cybercrime has gotten completely out of hand. Another main reason we are writing this book is to teach the reader how to apply network security. Network theory can only take you so far in understanding network security. It is necessary to use applied knowledge to fully learn all aspects of network security. Reading this book will provide detailed step-by-step instructions on how to use applied network security tools and methods. We also wrote this book to promote an understanding on how hackers attack and what tools they use. This book will give an insight into how a hacker thinks and what methods they use. Having knowledge of a hacker's tactics will give the reader a great advantage in protecting any network from attacks.