Network security testing is key in safeguarding the IT infrastructure for a company or an individual. One of the most commonly used technique in testing the security of a network is through penetration testing, which involves identifying vulnerabilities in the network which may be used by attackers to illegally access the network ( Hoque et al., 2014 ). Some of the tools used in network security testing are as follows;
Nmap is also called the network mapper which is a free and open-source tool that is used for scanning network systems for vulnerabilities. This tool runs in all operating systems and can scan both large and small networks. Apart from scanning for vulnerabilities, it also performs mapping of network attack surfaces and monitors host and service uptime. https://nmap.org/download.html
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Wireshark is a free tool used in analyzing the details of activities taking place in a network. It performs various services include network analyzer and network sniffing ( Asrodia & Patel, 2012) . It assesses real-time vulnerabilities in network traffic. It scrutinizes the network traffic from connection level to data packets transferred in the network. https://www.wireshark.org/download.html
Nessus is a paid-for tool that is used to detect vulnerabilities in networks. It is easy to use, accurate and fast scanner that provides detailed information of the network vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities identified by this tool include open ports, weak network passwords, and configuration errors. https://www.tenable.com/downloads/nessus
Nagios is a powerful free tool that is used by professionals and individuals to monitor network services such the SMTP, POP3, ICMP, NNTP, and HTTP. This tool is used in monitoring the networks, hosts, and computer systems delivering real-time alerts. The user can determine which type of notifications the tool should give. https://www.nagios.org/downloads/
Burp Suite is a network security testing tool that provides a real-time network scanner that identifies vulnerabilities in the network ( Catania & Garino, 2012 ). It uses a simulated attack to determine how a network can be compromised. The tool is available in three packages community, professional and enterprise, where the professional and enterprise versions are paid-for tools giving access to network testing tools and web vulnerability scanner. The community is free with limited services. https://portswigger.net/burp
Network Security testing is important for any organization and individuals to avoid their network systems being illegally intruded by attackers. There are available tools that offer network security testing at cheap prices and others are free of charge. It is advisable to acquire these tools from a trustable source.
References
Asrodia, P., & Patel, H. (2012). Network traffic analysis using packet sniffer. International journal of engineering research and applications , 2 (3), 854-856.
Catania, C. A., & Garino, C. G. (2012). Automatic network intrusion detection: Current techniques and open issues. Computers & Electrical Engineering , 38 (5), 1062-1072.
Hoque, N., Bhuyan, M. H., Baishya, R. C., Bhattacharyya, D. K., & Kalita, J. K. (2014). Network attacks: Taxonomy, tools and systems. Journal of Network and Computer Applications , 40 , 307-324.
