Introduction:
In terms of accessibility to information, ease of communication, and general computing power, the internet era has been a boon to us all. But the internet has also presented several new concerns and threats. Cybersecurity is a pressing concern for us all. Immense amounts of confidential and vulnerable data are stored online nowadays. If this information fell into the wrong hands, it could wreak havoc.
It’s, therefore, no wonder that developing cybersecurity applications is a booming business. The cybersecurity market is currently worth almost 140 billion dollars and is projected to only grow in value. Companies have developed a plethora of applications to satisfy a diverse variety of security needs, both at the personal and the enterprise level. The different kinds of commonly used tools include encryption software, packet sniffers, network defenses, etc.
Out of all the available options, choosing the cybersecurity tool which is right for you can be a challenge. Luckily for you, we’ve done some research of our own to help you out! So, if you want to learn more about the 10 best cybersecurity tools in 2022, just keep reading!
- Kali Linux
Developed by Offensive Security and released in 2013, Kali Linux is a Linux distribution derived from Debian. It revolves around digital forensics and penetration testing.
Features
- User-friendly: Kali is optimized to minimize the amount of work required from the user to install and configure the system. This platform can be easily used by beginners and entry-level professionals. Most of the tools offered are very easy to use, so you can keep track of your company’s security with just a few clicks.
- Available on multiple platforms: Whatever your preferred platform or deployment mechanism, a version of Kali is available to suit your needs. This application comes in Docker, ARM, Amazon Web Services, Windows, Virtual Machine, Linux Subsystem, mobile, bare metal, and many other versions. To learn fully about the various available avatars of Kali, go to https://www.kali.org/get-kali/.
- Highly customizable: Kali’s extensive usage of metapackages makes it highly customizable and extensible. Metapackages are configured as a list of dependencies on other packages. They can thus be used to install multiple packages at one go. Kali’s metapackages are tailored to cater to every conceivable need of the security professional. The easily accessible and exhaustively documented ISO Customisation process allows you to create the version of Kali best suited to your unique requirements. You can do everything from changing the default wallpaper to adding packages not present in Kali’s network repositories.
- Cost: Kali is an open-source platform, so its cost will depend on the particular version you go for and whatever services you subsequently require.
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- Metasploit
Developed by Rapid7 LLC and written in Ruby, Metasploit provides information to users about their security vulnerabilities and also aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development.
Features:
- Easy automation: Metasploit allows you to automate every phase of penetration testing, from choosing the appropriate exploits to evidence collection and reporting.
- Realistic penetration testing: Metasploit will simulate realistic attacks on your systems to fully test your cybersecurity Frameworks with protocols and personnel. You can simulate phishing campaigns, USB drop campaigns, etc. By keeping track of which attacks are successful, you’ll get a good idea about the vulnerabilities in your system.
- Gather and reuse credentials: You can track and catalog gathered credentials for reporting. By trying the credentials on all the systems in your network with the help of Metasploit’s credential domino wizard, you can comprehensively check your system’s security.
- Cost: The current cost for using Metasploit is around $15,000 a year. A free trial is available.
- Wireshark
In use for over twenty years now, Wireshark is a free and open-source packet analyzer. It can be used to troubleshoot network problems, verify network applications, debug protocol implementations, etc.
Features
- It is available for both Unix and Windows.
- It captures traffic in real-time from a variety of network media such as Ethernet, Bluetooth, USB, and more. The specific media types supported will depend, however, on your hardware and operating system.
- It can import files and open captured packets from a wide variety of programs. You can also export files for many captured programs and save captured packets in many formats.
- You can filter packets on the basis of many criteria, search for packets on many criteria, and colourise packet displays based on filters.
- Wireshark is an open-source project. This means that you can use it on as many devices as you like without worrying about license keys or fees. Since the source code is freely available under the General Public License, Wireshark is easily extensible. You can add new protocols either as plugins or directly to the source code.
- Tcpdump
Originally written in 1988, Tcpdump is a data network packet analyzer. It runs under a command-line interface. It is an open-source software compatible with most Unix platforms.
Features
- You can capture packets either from all interfaces or from a specific interface. You can execute the later function with the “-i” switch command. You can also capture all the packets from a specified interface or a specified number of packets only.
- You can print captured packets in ASCII.
- You can display a list of all the available interfaces in the system with the -D command.
- You can display captured packets with their link-level headers in both HEX and ASCII.
- You can capture and save packets in a file in the. pcap format, and read and analyze captured packet files.
- You can capture IP address packets for a specific interface or only capture TCP packets. You can also capture packets either from a specific port, a specified source IP address, or a specified destination IP.
- NetStumbler
Developed by Marius Milner, NetStumbler is a platform for Windows that facilitates the detection of wireless LANs. It is used for verifying network configurations, detecting causes of wireless interference, detecting unauthorized access points, etc.
Features
- Detecting access points is a primary use of NetStumbler. The right-hand pane will show access points detected and available under the current view filter. Next to each point is a coloured dot indicating its signal strength. The point’s MAC address, i.e., its unique identifier, is also mentioned.
- The left-hand pane will provide you with an interface to explore the aforementioned access points. You will find all the detected access points listed under their channel frequencies in the Channels section. The SSIDs section sorts all detected points under their network names. If there are multiple points sharing the same SSID, the Subnet section will tell you the IP each point is functioning on.
- Access point filters allow you to filter the list of access points displayed in the right-hand pane. By default, no filters are applied.
- You can track the location of detected access points with GPS.
- Forcepoint One
Developed by Forcepoint, this product is an all-in-one, cloud-native cybersecurity tool. It is a consolidated security tool with one platform, one console, and one agent.
Features
- Protect cloud and private apps: Users can be granted access only to the apps they need without exposing the rest of the network. You can enforce consistent threat protection and data loss protection across cloud and private apps.
- Can secure any device: You can protect sensitive data on both managed and unmanaged devices from a single console.
- Focus on the most vulnerable traffic: Forcepoint allows you to efficiently concentrate security resources at the most vulnerable points of your network. Decryption, encryption, and protection are used in a seamless way that protects the user without interfering with their workflow.
- Reliable performance: No choke points, VPNs, or appliances ensure a high degree of performance. You can route traffic locally for the lowest possible latency in connectivity.
- It protects cloud apps like Office 365, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, and Slack.
- Nexpose
Another product by Rapid7 LLC, Nexpose is a vulnerability scanning tool. It supports the entire lifecycle of vulnerability management, including verification, detection, risk classification, impact analysis, and mitigation.
Features
- It can work in mobile, physical, virtual, or cloud environments.
- It prioritizes and classifies risks on the basis of the exploitability of detected vulnerabilities. It can also prioritize vulnerability patching and schedule scans by enabling admins and configuring security alarms.
- A special feature known as Live Monitoring collects available data and then converts that data into action plans.
- The Liveboards feature substitutes results on a static dashboard for dynamic, constantly updated visual reporting.
- The Remediation Workflow feature is used to manage and track the progress of your organization’s security teams and analyze how vulnerabilities are being addressed.
- It is available in various product versions such as Ultimate, Enterprise, Express, and Community.
- The Community version of Nexpose is available for free use. The other editions have varying pricing and licensing formats. In large organizations, the costs, including support, can exceed $20,000.
- KeePass
Developed in 2003 by Dominik Reichl, KeePass is a free, open-source password manager. It is used primarily for Windows. Official support is available for MacOS and Linux through the Mono compatibility framework.
Features
- Strong security: KeePass uses the US-government-approved Advanced Encryption Standard and the Twofish algorithm to keep its password databases secure. Password editing controls are also security enhanced.
- Multiple user keys: A single master password can be used to decrypt the entire database. Alternatively, you can use key files carried on a USB or some other form of external physical storage.
- Highly portable and accessible: KeePass can be carried on any USB stick, and it can run on any Windows system without needing to be installed. Installer packages are available if you want to create shortcuts to the platform in your Windows Start Menu or on your desktop’s home screen.
- You can export to TXT, HTML, XML and CSV files. Many other file formats are supported through plugins. You can also import from over 35 file formats.
- Burp Suite
Developed by Port Swigger, Burp Suite is a highly effective network security tool. It is available in enterprise, professional, and community editions. Here, we will discuss the features of the professional edition.
Features
- Penetration testing features: You can modify all HTTP(S) communications passing through your browser. All target data is collected and stored in a target site map, which you can filter and annotate. An advanced automatic discovery function allows you to discover hidden target functionality. You can also test for clickjacking attacks and manually test for out-of-band vulnerabilities.
- Custom automated attacks: You can query automated attack results, construct CSRF proof-of-concept attacks, automatically modify HTTP messages and facilitate exhaustive manual testing.
- Automated scanning for vulnerabilities: You can navigate different applications with a native crawler that identifies locations based on content and not just URL. You can fine-tune scan control and effectively remediate bugs with step-by-step remediation advice from the Port Swigger Community.
- Paros Proxy
Paros Proxy is a very popular lightweight penetration testing tool for web applications. Since it is built on Java, it is compatible with most operating systems.
Features:
- User interface: The left section will display the website currently being tested and all the discovered files and folders. This allows you to create a virtual map of the target website. The right section displays each request made within the site and the responses to them. The bottom section displays the responses from the scans and crawling executed on the target site. This section encloses the history, spider, alert, and output tabs which display information depending on the activity your executing against the target site.
- Requests within the target can be trapped, modified, and re-sent. This allows you to perform a variety of tests within the website parameters.
- Spidering, HTTP message editing, proxy-chaining, and intelligent scanning for SQL and XSS vulnerabilities are supported on this platform.
Conclusion
In today’s world, cybersecurity is something no enterprise can afford to ignore. Thankfully, the variety of cybersecurity tools out there allows you to confidently protect every aspect of your organization. Open-source tools allow you to save on costs as well.
If you’re a cybersecurity professional, your success in the industry will depend to a large extent on the tools you use. So, think carefully about your requirements, and choose wisely!
We hope you found this guide to the 10 best cybersecurity tools of 2022 helpful!
Author Bio
Meravath Raju is a Digital Marketer, and a passionate writer, who is working with MindMajix, a top global online training provider. He also holds in-depth knowledge of IT and demanding technologies such as Business Intelligence, Salesforce, Cybersecurity, Software Testing, QA, Data analytics, Project Management and ERP tools, etc.
