Empowering your security team with 31 no-cost tools and resources for conducting cybersecurity testing and colleague awareness
As we enter 2024, staying ahead of threats without straining the budget is a significant and growing challenge. To help, we’ve pulled together a list of some free assets (at the time of writing) that are great for conducting various cybersecurity testing and awareness exercises, from demonstrating the dangers of phishing attacks to penetration assessment.
These tools not only aid in enhancing security posture but also promote continuous learning and adaptation within your busy security team.
Phishing Training and Awareness
- Gophish: An open-source phishing framework that helps security teams create and run realistic phishing simulations. It offers detailed reporting to assess the effectiveness of your training.
- Phish Insight: This tool by Trend Micro enables you to conduct free phishing awareness training and simulations, providing real-time feedback and reports.
- Duo Insight: A user-friendly tool from Duo Security for creating simulated phishing campaigns to test and educate employees.
- Signs of Phishing: A handy printable flyer for colleague awareness, with twelve tell-tail signs of phishing emails.
Free Penetration Testing Tools
- Kali Linux: A Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. It contains several hundred tools.
- Metasploit Framework: An open-source project providing a public resource for researching security vulnerabilities.
- Nmap: A network mapping tool that scans for devices and services, useful for identifying potential targets and weaknesses.
Cybersecurity Investigation Tools
- Wireshark: The world’s foremost network protocol analyzer, it lets you see what’s happening on your network at a microscopic level.
- The Sleuth Kit & Autopsy: Open-source tools for digital forensics, helping in the investigation of what happened on a computer.
- REMnux: A Linux cybersecurity toolkit for reverse-engineering and analyzing malicious software.
Company Cybersecurity Awareness Training
- Cybrary: Offers free courses on various cybersecurity topics, including awareness training.
- Open Security Training: High-quality, free training material for building security expertise.
- KnowBe4: Free tools and resources to help you create a security-aware culture.
Additional Resources
- OWASP ZAP: An open-source web application security scanner. Download OWASP ZAP.
- Snort: The friendly piggy, an open-source network intrusion detection and prevention system.
- Google Gruyere: A site that lets you practice exploiting web application vulnerabilities.
More Free Cybersecurity Tools
- Burp Suite Free Edition: A set of tools for web application security testing.
- SQLMap: An open-source penetration testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws.
- YARA: A tool aimed at helping malware researchers identify and classify malware samples.
- MISP: An open-source threat intelligence platform used for sharing, storing, and correlating Indicators of Compromise.
- Tcpreplay: A suite of free tools for editing and replaying previously captured network traffic.
Expanding Your Cybersecurity Testing Toolkit
- Cuckoo Sandbox: An automated malware analysis system.
- Volatility: An advanced memory forensics framework.
- PentestBox: A portable penetration testing environment for Windows.
- Nikto: An open-source web server scanner.
- ClamAV: An open-source antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, and other malware.
- BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework): A tool for exploring vulnerabilities within web browsers.
- Maltego: Offers a community version for graphical link analysis.
- ThreatConnect: Provides a free version of its threat intelligence platform.
- Splunk Free: A tool for analyzing machine-generated big data.
- NetStumbler: A tool for Windows that helps in the detection of Wireless LANs using 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g.
In a business environment with a plethora of cybersecurity horror stories making the news daily, with ever-evolving cybersecurity risk, and where cybersecurity testing and training are paramount, these free resources can provide your team with a few extra and necessary tools to stay ahead of threats. By leveraging these assets, you can enhance your security protocols and improve employee awareness.
Let’s be careful out there.
