Internet, Networking, & Security Home Networking 110 110 people found this article helpful Insecure.org's Top 125 Network Security Tools Survey-driven list of the best network security tools by Tony Bradley, CISSP-ISSAP Writer Tony Bradley is a former Lifewire writer and tech journalist who specializes in network and internet security. He is a respected information security expert and prolific author. our editorial process LinkedIn Tony Bradley, CISSP-ISSAP Updated on November 18, 2019 Tweet Share Email Home Networking The Wireless Connection Routers & Firewalls Network Hubs ISP Broadband Ethernet Installing & Upgrading Wi-Fi & Wireless In the year 2000, the creator of the NMap Security Scanner, Gordon Lyon (he goes by Fyodor), conducted a survey of the readers of the nmap-hackers mailing list, and compiled a list of the top 50 security tools. Since then, he's been conducting the survey every three years and refining the list each time. With suggestions from thousands of readers, items are added to and removed from the list with each survey. Below is a summary of the top 10 network security tools from his most recent list, plus how each item changed from the last survey. You can see the complete, detailed listing of all 125 tools, complete with user reviews and download links, on SecTools.org. Top 10 Security Tools Wireshark (packet sniffer previously-known as Ethereal)Was #2; moved up one position. Freely available on Windows, Linux, and macOSMetasploit (exploit)Was #5; moved up three positions. Works with Windows, Linux, and macOSNessus (vulnerability scanner)Was #1; moved down two positions. Windows, Linux, and macOS are supportedAircrack (WEP and WPA cracker)Was #21; moved up 17 positions. Free for Windows, Linux, and macOSSnort (network intrusion detector)Was #3; moved down two positions. Works on Windows, Linux, and macOSCain and Abel (packet sniffer and password cracker)Was #9; moved up three positions. Free for Windows onlyBackTrack (penetration tester)Was #32; moved up 25 positions. Free for Linux onlyNetcat (debugger and exploration tool)Was #4; moved down four positions. Free for Windows, Linux, and macOStcpdump (packet sniffer)Was #8; moved down one position. Free for Windows, Linux, and macOSJohn The Ripper (packet sniffer and password cracker)Was #10; did not change position. Windows, Linux, and macOS are supported Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit