Top 15 Cybersecurity Tools in 2023

Cybersecurity tools assist IT professionals in protecting an organization’s data and business systems from cyber threats by implementing various authentication and authorization systems. Let us delve into the significance of cybersecurity tools, the various types of cybersecurity tools, and the best available tools to combat cybersecurity threats.

Why is cyber security important?

Organizations all over the world rely heavily on information technology (IT.) Whether an enterprise needs to protect intellectual capital, a brand, or customer information, or provide controls for critical infrastructure, cyber security capabilities have become critical.

To protect organisational interests that have three common elements: people, technology, and processes, automated means are required for incident detection and response.

Data breaches also pose a risk to one’s reputation. Customers may lose trust in a company after a high-profile hack or data loss, and they may take their business elsewhere. This also carries the risk of significant financial losses, legal fees, fines, and damage repair if sensitive data is lost.

According to the Ponemon Institute’s Cost of Data Breach Study, the average damage caused by a data breach in the United States is $8 million. In addition to financial losses, most incidents result in reputational harm and a loss of customer trust.

Governments around the world have also imposed legal obligations to keep customer and user data from being stolen or lost and ending up in the wrong hands.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard are some of the most widely accepted industry and state regulations that outline organisations’ legal obligations to protect data (PCI DSS).

What are cybersecurity tools?

Cybersecurity tools assist you in monitoring and resolving potential security issues. These tools help businesses and individuals maintain their online privacy and security. Cybersecurity tools continuously monitor computer systems or networks and alert the user of potential threats as soon as they are detected.

They serve as the last line of defence against various types of cyber-attacks, such as unauthorised use of resources, data breaches, and hacker attacks, in order to protect an organization’s system, network, or intellectual property. They also provide security against cybercrime such as password theft and identity theft.

Types of cybersecurity tools

Following are the top 15 Cybersecurity tools in 2023:

• Kali Linux
• Cain and Abel
• Metasploit
• John the Ripper
• Wireshark
• Nikto
• Tcpdump
• KisMAC
• NetStumbler
• Splunk
• Forcepoint
• Aircrack-ng
• Nexpose
• Nessus Professional
• N Map

Kali Linux

Kali Linux is one of the most popular and ready-to-use cybersecurity tools available. It provides over 300 tools for businesses to use in monitoring their networking systems for vulnerabilities. The main advantage is that the platform can be tailored to different levels of expertise.

Key features:

• Compatible across multiple devices and environments
• Open-source product with easy integration
• Highly useful in security auditing with a specialization in penetration testing
• Contributions and developments from a massive community of users

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel are one the oldest cybersecurity tools in the industry that help in identifying the weaknesses in Windows as well as password recovery.

Key features:

• Ability to maintain a record of VoIP communications
• Analyzing routing protocols to figure out if the routed data packets can get compromised.
• Can disclose password boxes and cached passwords, etc.,
• Uses force attacks that help in cracking encrypted passwords.
• Helps in decoding passwords that are scrambled.

Metasploit

Metasploit is a penetration testing tool. It addresses a variety of security goals, including developing strategies to strengthen the company’s Cyber Security defences and identifying vulnerabilities in systems and networks, among others.

Key features:

• Tests system security of online and web-based applications, servers, networks, etc.
• Offers capabilities to uncover the slightest emerging weaknesses and provide high-level security around the clock.
• Compatible with a range of different systems, including web-based or online-based applications, networks, and servers, among others.
• Helps evaluate and update IT infrastructure security against vulnerabilities reported earlier.

John the Ripper

John the Ripper is a password strength testing tool. The tool accesses and identifies weak passwords that may pose security risks to a protected system in an organisation.

Key features:

• Works with a variety of systems, including Windows, Linux, DOS, and OpenVMS systems.
• Identifies complex ciphers, encrypted logins, and hash-type passwords.
• To make sure the tool provides accurate pen-testing results, the Open ware community develops and releases continuous updates.

Wireshark

Wireshark is an open-source console-based network protocol analysis tool. It is used by cybersecurity professionals to assess network security flaws by continuously capturing and analysing data packets.

Key features:

• Compatibility across different platforms such as Windows, Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, etc.
• Open-source architecture with relatively easy integration,
• Data is captured and analyzed in real-time data
• Multiple networks and various output formats are supported by decryption protocol supports,

Nikoto

Nikto, an open-source cyber security tool, is one of the best choices for conducting web vulnerabilities. It scans for web vulnerabilities and fixes them.

Key features:

• Nikto has a database of 6400 different types of threats to compare with the results of a web vulnerability scan
• Both web servers and networks are covered.
• The dat
• abase is frequently updated by developers with new threat data to counter new vulnerabilities
• Numerous plugins are released continuously to ensure the tool is compatible across different types of systems.

Tcpdump

Tcpdump is primarily used for sniffing data packets in a network.

Key features:

• Monitors and logs IP traffic and TCP communicated through a network.
• Offers a command-based software utility to analyze network traffic between the device it is executed in and the network which is routing the traffic.
• Tests and monitors the security of a network by capturing and filtering TCP/IP data traffic transferred across or received over the network on a particular interface.

KisMAC

KisMAC offers wireless network security for MAC operating systems by scanning wireless networks supported by Wi-Fi cards, such as airports.

Key features:

• Dedicated to MAC OS software
• PCAP import and export capabilities,
• Features Kismet drone support
• Improves network security by using brute force attacks and the exploitation of weak scheduling,
• Supports many third-party USB devices: Ralink rt2570, Intersil Prism2, rt73, and Realtek rtl8187 chipsets.

Netstumbler

Netstumbler is a free cybersecurity tool dedicated to systems running on Windows operating systems. There is no provision of source codes since Netstumbler was developed for Windows systems only.

Key features:

• Helps experts identify open ports on a network.
• Used for wardriving purposes.
• Among the most popular tools for network defence as the tool uses a WAP-seeking approach when searching for open ports.
• Ability to identify network vulnerabilities

Splunk

Because of its speed and versatility, a fully automated web vulnerability scanner is one of the best tools for monitoring network security. Splunk is used to search for threat data using historical searches and real-time network analysis.

Key features:

• Data is collected from virtually any source and location,
• A unified user interface makes it a user-friendly tool
• Powerful abilities to unlock data across all parts of the enterprise,
• It can be implemented as a cloud-based platform or on-premise deployment.

Forcepoint

Forcepoint is a popular tool among network and security administrators for customising SD-Wan. Only authorised users will be able to access specific resource contents this way. Forcepoints assist them in tracking malicious network activity. As a result, users can later apply the necessary controls and compliances to fix them.

It can be installed on-premises or in the cloud. It warns or blocks cloud servers that pose security threats to the systems during cloud implementation. This type of feature aids in the better security management of remote workers.

Key features:

• A high level of security in applications having significant data,
• Seamless integration for fingerprints, policies, and classifiers across all channels
• Intrusions can be blocked with a high level of customization and the probable exploitation of vulnerabilities,
• Provides real-time classification and content analysis,
• Third-party global and cross-portfolio shared threat intelligence network.

Aircrack-ng

Aircrack-ng is a free and open-source tool utilized to access the weaknesses

of Wi-Fi network security and is a must-have comprehensive suite of wireless tools. This package of tools’ main benefit is monitoring, analyzing, and exporting packets of data, cracking complex Wi-Fi passwords, and spoofing access points.

Key features:

• Easy integration with open-source architecture
• Compatible with most wireless network interface controllers,
• Includes a suite of programs like Airdecap-ng, Airtun-ng, Airodump-ng, and Packetforge-ng,
• Heavy scripting is enabled as all tools are command line based
• Works primarily on Linux but also FreeBSD, macOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Windows, as well as Solaris and even eComStation 2.

Nexpose

Nexpose offers real-time functionalities for scanning and managing vulnerabilities and is dedicated to on-premise infrastructure. Security teams use it to identify and minimize potential weak points in a system as well as detect and fix vulnerabilities.

Key Features:

• Nexus gives live views and security analysis of all activities happening in a network.
• Nexus continually refreshes its database to ensure the tool contains the most recent threat data so that it can adapt to different types of threat environments in software or data.
• The tool further allows security professionals to plan a coordinated response to multiple vulnerabilities by assigning a risk score to the identified vulnerabilities resulting in prioritization as per the levels of severity.

Nessus Professional

Nessus Professional contributes to network integrity. The pro version of Nessus Professional allows administrators and security personnel to use this free, open-source vulnerability scanner to identify potential exploits. The tool’s main advantage is that its database is updated daily with new threat data.

Key features:

• Remote vulnerability scanning tool offering high-speed asset discovery,
• Easy to deploy and use,
• Tenable’s expert vulnerability research team is always available for support,
• Point-in-time assessments are automated to help quickly identify and fix vulnerabilities,
• Nessus supports Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems.

Nmap

It is a free and open-source cybersecurity tool in Cyber that scans IT systems and networks for security vulnerabilities. It is also known as Network Mapper. Furthermore, it enables professionals to monitor host uptime, map out potential areas of network and service attack, and take significant security actions as a result.

Key features:

• Nmap is compatible with all popular operating systems,
• Irrespective of the size of the network, it enables experts to scan for vulnerabilities on the web,
• Provides a detailed overview of the activities of the network on a single dashboard, such as the hosts that are connected to the network, the types of packet filters and firewalls deployed to keep the network secure, the operating system it runs on, etc.