Getting Started with Penetration Testing Labs in the Cloud

The demand for cloud security professionals continues to increase as the number of cloud-related threats and incidents rises significantly every year. To manage the risks involved when learning cloud penetration testing and ethical hacking, security engineers seeking to advance their careers would benefit from having a solid understanding of how to set up penetration testing environments in the cloud.

In this introductory chapter, we will quickly go through the benefits of setting up penetration testing labs in the cloud. We will explore how modern cloud applications are designed, developed, and deployed as this will be essential when we build penetration testing labs in the succeeding chapters. In the final section of this chapter, we’ll delve deeper into several relevant factors to consider when designing and building vulnerable cloud infrastructures.

That said, we will cover the following topics:

• Why build your penetration testing labs in the cloud?
• Recognizing the impact of cloud computing on the cybersecurity landscape
• Exploring how modern cloud applications are designed, developed, and deployed
• Examining the considerations when building penetration testing lab environments in the cloud

With these in mind, let’s get started!