Review by Tony L Turner CISSP, CISA, GIACx4, OPSE, VCP, ITIL-F

The Hacker Academy (THA), with their online ethical hacking curriculum, fulfills an integral training need for security professionals. There are many training programs available today that teach tools and techniques for hacking. Some are better than others or suited to slightly different specializations such as web, network or wireless pen testing, but most of them are presenting very similar content. The problem is that most of these programs offer static content. By that I mean that the material does not change frequently, and the student is forced to find ways to stay current on new techniques. I think most of us would agree that it is a requirement in this field, but it can be very expensive and time consuming constantly going to conferences, trying to sift through Twitter or the hundreds of blogs for that useful tidbit. THA seeks to address that very problem with constant updates to the content by adding modules at an alarming rate. The cost is very reasonable at $95/month or $995/year with no contract required.

The format of the course includes web-based videos of the content, a lab component for each module, additional reading from external sources, comments sections for the module to interact with other students and instructors, and virtual machines for the attack platform using Backtrack 4 and various target VMs.  Instructors are real-world professionals such as EH-Net columnist Mike Murray, Mike Bailey, Daniel Frye and Jeremy Conway. THA’s Online Curriculum consists of two primary sections, Ethical Hacking and The Cutting Edge.