I'm middle-aged and deeply interested in technology, especially cybersecurity. I've spent time working with operating systems and currently use Arch Linux. I'd like to learn how security testing and ethical hacking actually work—not necessarily as a career, but as a serious technical skill. People often say to start with networking, but I'm unsure how to study it, how deeply I need to go, and what subjects I should learn afterward. What books, courses, videos, or hands-on labs would give me a structured path? I'm interested in practicing legally on systems I own or have explicit permission to test.
3 Answers
Don’t spend months on theory without practicing. Learn the networking basics while building a small lab where you can observe what’s happening. Start with IP addressing, subnetting, TCP and UDP, DNS, HTTP, routing, firewalls, and common network tools such as ping, traceroute, curl, and Wireshark. Then practice in isolated virtual machines or guided platforms rather than touching systems you don’t own.
For hands-on learning, guided labs such as TryHackMe and Hack The Box can provide legal targets and structured exercises. Start with beginner paths and take notes on every command and concept instead of copying solutions. You can also create a home lab with virtual machines, but keep it isolated from your normal network and only test machines you control. Many beginner resources are free, so you don’t need an expensive setup immediately.
There isn’t one general skill called “hacking.” You need to understand the systems you want to assess. Build a foundation in networking, Linux and Windows administration, programming or scripting, web applications, authentication, and basic defensive security. After that, choose a direction such as web security, internal networks, cloud, reverse engineering, or malware analysis. Learn how each technology is supposed to work before studying how it can fail.
That makes sense. For networking specifically, should I use books, videos, or a course, and how far should I go before moving on to other areas?
A small virtual lab is usually enough at first: one Linux machine, one Windows evaluation machine, and a deliberately vulnerable practice target on a private virtual network. That lets you learn safely without exposing anything else.