Review and coursework completion

This week’s topics

Review and coursework completion

1. Reviewing the learning outcomes
2. Completing and checking coursework against the criteria
3. Self-assessment

What you will be able to do

• 1.1 Describe what is meant by penetration testing/ethical hacking.
• 1.2 Explain how penetration testing is connected to the broader notion of security testing.
• 1.3 Explain the differences between white box, grey box, and black box penetration testing.
• 1.4 Analyse the key stages of penetration testing, including reconnaissance, scanning, vulnerability assessment, exploitation, and reporting.
• 1.5 Critically evaluate the benefits of penetration testing from a variety of perspectives.
• 2.1 Outline the key information that is collected as part of the reconnaissance stage.
• 2.2 Explain the purposes of reconnaissance, enumeration, and scanning for penetration testing.
• 2.3 Use industry-standard software tools to perform active and passive enumeration.
• 2.4 Use industry-standard software tools and databases to perform scanning.
• 3.1 Use tools to exploit identified security vulnerabilities to agreed extents.
• 3.2 Use existing exploitations to capitalise and extract information or extend the degree of exploitation to test system vulnerabilities.
• 3.3 Analyse results to document actions, evidence, and vulnerabilities, and to provide security recommendations through an exploit report.
• 3.4 Evaluate results to enact steps to mitigate vulnerabilities.
• 4.1 Explain the legal frameworks governing ethical hacking and penetration testing.
• 4.2 Analyse the responsibilities of an ethical hacker, including responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities.
• 4.3 Evaluate the potential ethical dilemmas faced by penetration testers.

Activity

Guided review of every criterion; coursework completion clinic and peer review.

Study materials