I have a new course available at Pluralsight. It’s an introduction to the Metasploit Framework. In it, I focus on getting started quickly with using the framework. It’s a relatively short course (for me) at approximately two hours of content, including demonstrations. The course is called Metasploit: Getting Started. (Course Overview video)
I completed and published another course with Pluralsight. This time I was asked to create an introductory course for information security. It had to be high level. It had to be accessible to beginners that have little to no background in information security.
It is the lead course in the Survey of Information Security learning path. This path also contains my second penetration testing course, Penetration Testing: The Big Picture.
The objective of this course is to assist learners in understanding the foundational principles and the key concepts in security. I describe most of the program and management approaches from an organizational perspective. I used this method specifically so that learners can apply this knowledge to their current job and their organization.
I have another Pluralsight course published. Still focusing on penetration testing, I was asked to create a high level overview course on the subject. Penetration Testing: The Big Picture was published on October 6, 2017 and looks at a wide variety of topics on penetration testing.
The focus in this course is to present information about pen testing that would be useful to those interested in learning more about it as a career option or training direction. It can also be useful for individuals and organizations interested in hiring pen testers or organizations seeking pen testing services.
I developed the Pluralsight course Introduction to Penetration Testing Using Metasploit using Kali Linux, which is a project from Offensive Security. Kali is a Linux distribution with most of the tools an information security professional would need. It is also a great platform for designing courses around because most, if not all, of the tools needed are installed by default.
The challenge is that Kali changes over time. Most of the times those changes are good and necessary to stay current and relevant. Of course, those changes often negatively impact ancillary products and information resources, including instructional courses. My Metasploit course is no exception. Revising an existing course that is already in use has its own challenges. Instead, I offer this blog post as a “living document” highlighting changes in Kali Linux that impact my Metasploit course. My hope is that if you run into issues with the course due to changes in Kali, you can find the answers here.
Joe Colantonio and I had a conversation about penetration testing and the use of Metasploit on the Test Talks Podcast. That episode is available now.
Joe is a fellow Pluralsight Author and host of the Test Talks Podcast, which is a weekly podcast all about software test automation.
We discussed concepts in penetration testing, Metasploit and its auxiliary modules and OpenVAS for vulnerability scanning, Meterpreter for post-exploitation activities, ethics in the use of tools like Metasploit, and Kali Linux.
Check out this episode and other episodes from Joe Colantonio and the Test Talks Podcast.
ikawnoclastic thoughts 