This course introduces the principles and techniques associated with cybersecurity practice known as penetration testing or ethical hacking. This course covers the techniques used by hackers to break into an organization and necessary tools to have a hacker mind-set in order to protect network against future attacks. This course illustrates the differences between ethical and unethical penetration testing, describes and explains the phases of a penetration test including reconnaissance, scanning, enumeration, vulnerability assessment, exploitation, and covering tracks. Students will be able to apply different tools and methods to conduct penetration tests for the purpose of discovering how system vulnerabilities can be exploited and possible countermeasures​