Top 10 Cyber Security Tools

Do you want to start a career in cyber security or advance your knowledge in this field? Then you’ve arrived at the right place. This article will look at the top ten cyber security tools you should be aware of if you want to improve your skills.

Cyber security tools are often used by cybersecurity analysts in order to perform various actions. Based on usage, we can divide cyber security tools into seven main categories: encryption, network security monitoring, web vulnerability, antivirus software, network intrusion detection, penetration testing, and packet sniffers.

For more information you can also explore: What is cybersecurity?

Before we begin exploring top cyber security tools in each of the seven categories mentioned above, let’s go through the list of topics listed under the table of content (TOC) that we will cover in this article.

Yo can also explore: Cyber security books that you must read in 2023.

Table of content (TOC)

• What are cyber security tools?
• Top ten cyber security tools
  • Wireshark
  • John the Ripper
  • Metasploit framework
  • Forcepoint
  • Cain & Abel
  • Burp Suite
  • Tor
  • TrueCrypt
  • Splunk
  • Malwarebytes
• Conclusion

You can also explore about these cyber threats or attacks:

What Is Session Hijacking Attack and How To Prevent It?	What Is a Logic Bomb? Why All the Fuss About It?
What Is SQL Injection And How To Prevent It?	What Is Eavesdropping & How To Prevent It?
What Is Deepfake and How Does It Work?	Ransomware: How It Works & How To Get Rid Of It?
What is a Man in the Middle Attack?	What is Identity (ID) Theft & How to Avoid it

What are cyber security tools?

Cyber security tools are those tools that are mostly used by organizations to ensure their cybersecurity is strong or by cybersecurity analysts to perform various actions, such as identifying security vulnerabilities, simulating an attack on a computer, etc.

You can also explore, these courses:

Ethical hacking courses	Cryptography online course
Cyber law courses	Linux online courses

Based on usage, we can divide cyber security tools into seven main categories, such as encryption, network security monitoring, web vulnerability, antivirus software, network intrusion detection, penetration testing, and packet sniffers. Let’s explore these seven categories of cybersecurity tools in detail.

You can also explore: 10 biggest cyber attacks in history

Seven categories of cyber security tools:

Category	Description	Example
Encryption	Encryption tools safeguard data by scrambling text, rendering it unreadable to unauthorized users.	Tor, TrueCrypt, etc
Network security monitoring	Network security monitoring tools analyze network data and detect network-based threats.	Splunk, Nagios, etc.
Web vulnerability	Web vulnerability tools examine web applications for security flaws such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and path traversal.	Burp Suite, SQLMap, etc.
Antivirus software	Antivirus software detects viruses and malware such as ransomware, adware, spyware, and Trojans in a system.	Norton 360, Bitdefender Antivirus, etc.
Network intrusion detection	Network intrusion detection software examines the system and network traffic for suspicious or abnormal activity and alerts the administrator if a possible threat is identified.	Snort, Zeek, etc.
Penetration testing	Penetration testing tools replicate an attack on a computer in order to determine its security.	Metasploit, Wireshark, etc
Packet sniffers	Packet sniffer tools intercept, log, and analyze network traffic and data.	Windump, Tcpdump, etc.

Top ten cyber security tools 

Let’s now explore the top ten cyber security tools:

Wireshark

Wireshark is a free, open-source tool for Windows, Mac, Unix, and Linux systems that analyze network traffic in real-time or an application that captures packets from a network connection. Network administrators use this tool to troubleshoot network problems, developers to debug protocol implementations, and network security engineers to investigate security issues. As a result, this tool is used by a wide range of professionals and for various purposes, such as penetration testing.

John the Ripper

John the Ripper is a well-known open-source password-cracking tool that incorporates numerous cracking programs and operates in brute force and dictionary attack modes. The John, the Ripper tool, has several password hash-cracking modes.

These different modes allow you to crack password hashes in multiple ways, such as, if one mode of cracking a password hash fails to work, you could try another. You can also use this tool for conducting penetration testing.

Metasploit framework

Since 2003, Metasploit has been a well-known tool among IT and security professionals. Ethical hackers frequently use the Metasploit framework to investigate systematic security flaws on servers and networks. Cybercriminals can maliciously use Metasploit’s capabilities to identify potential security flaws in a target system.

The framework includes several exploitation and vulnerability scanners that can be easily customized and integrated with most operating systems because it is open-source.

Forcepoint

Forcepoint is a customizable security tool aimed primarily at cloud users. The tool defines network security, prevents users from accessing specific content, and detects and prevents intrusion attempts. The most significant advantage of using the Forcepoint tool is that it can combine disparate technologies into a single platform.

Consider a single central dashboard and a single source of truth for what’s going on with data across all environments. In a nutshell, this cyber security tool allows enterprises to intuitively explore, categorize, supervise, and secure information with minimal user friction.

Cain and Abel

Cain & Abel is undoubtedly one of the best password recovery utilities available; it is a powerful tool designed specifically for password recovery. It is intended to run on Microsoft Windows operating systems, but it also includes methods for recovering passwords for other systems.

Cain & Abel tool can sniff the local network for passwords relayed via POP3, HTTP/HTTPS, SMTP, and other protocols in order to recover passwords on other devices. This tool can recover many types of passwords using methods such as network packet sniffing, dictionary attacks, brute force, and so on.

Burp Suite

Burp Suite is an integrated platform and graphical tool for web application security testing. This tool contains various tools for undertaking testing tasks that work well with each other. You can also pass requests among tools to carry out various actions as your work progresses.

This tool also aids in the complete testing process, from preliminary mapping and evaluating an application’s attack surface to exploring and exploiting security flaws.

Tor

Tor is an open-source privacy network that allows users to browse the web anonymously. This tool conceals the IP address and browsing activity by routing web traffic through a network of routers known as nodes. Tor is mainly used by individuals who want to safeguard online privacy by concealing browsing activity and blocking tracking.

Tor, on the other hand, has flaws and errors. For example, there is always the possibility that hackers may control and monitor multiple nodes. It is possible to determine an individual’s identity if a single entity manages the route’s entry point and exit node.

TrueCrypt 

TrueCrypt is a tool that creates an encrypted file on your system and allows you to access it using a drive letter. This tool secures the encrypted file with keys secured by a separate TrueCrypt passphrase.

An administrator account must install TrueCrypt, and any registered user can use it on the computer. This tool has been one of the most prominent encryption tools over many years, without even being updated, because it allows professionals to encrypt layered content.

Splunk 

Splunk is a real-time analytics-driven SIEM tool that gathers, analyses, and corresponds to large amounts of network and machine data. This tool functions primarily as a log analysis engine, allowing you to correspond security events and, as a result, recognize where your breaches are coming from.

Splunk uses machine data to diagnose problems, identify data patterns, provide metrics, and provide business intelligence. Splunk, in a nutshell, is a horizontal technology used for information system management, compliance, security, and business and web analytics.

Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes is the best network security software for protecting your system from ransomware, malicious websites, malware, and other online threats. This cyber security tool can easily detect and block threats antivirus software cannot detect.

This utility is a multi-purpose troubleshooting and repair utility designed to aid in the resolution of problems. Malwarebytes protects your system on multiple levels, making it among the most robust security tools for homes and businesses. Every day, this tool identifies and stops more than 10,000 000 threats.

Conclusion

A good understanding of cyber security tools has become necessary in today’s world. It is so because in today’s digitized world, accessing data has become more accessible, whereas the risk of becoming a target of cyber-attacks has increased exponentially. Hence, it is vital to be aware of essential cyber security tools, if not all, in order to ensure your system and network are secured 24 by 7.

The cyber security tools listed above are the most common and popular tools that cybersecurity analysts use on a daily basis. These tools will assist you in mitigating data breaches, evading cyberattacks, protecting your data, and, above all, securing your IT infrastructure.