Table of contents for December 2025 in Hackercool Magazine

Year 2026 is almost here. Every year brings new changes in every cybersecurity domain. Similarly, Red teaming is no longer just about breaking into servers. In 2026, beginners must learn a mix of cloud, identity, browser and traditional network skills. In this article, we bring you ten skills that form the perfect starter foundation for anyone entering offensive security this year. 1. OSINT Automation Even in 2026, Open-source intelligence is your first weapon. Beginners should start learning how to automate: • Username discovery • Email harvesting • Social media footprinting • Subdomain enumeration Tools for this purpose: SpiderFoot, Amass, theHarvester, Holehe Why it matters in 2026: AI-generated phishing and deepfake-based scams depend on OSINT. Red teamers need the same intel advantage. 2. Cloud Reconnaissance (AWS & Azure) Most companies have…

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea now. It’s inside every security tool, every cloud platform and almost every attack chain. Believe me, in 2026, mastering the fundamentals of AI security is as important for beginners as learning Nmap or Metasploit. AI can increase offensive and defensive capabilities but it also creates new blind spots that attackers are eager to exploit. This article breaks down the 10 must-know AI security concepts that every beginner ethical hacker should understand to stay relevant in the new threat landscape. 1. Adversarial Machine Learning (AML) You know how AI models learn? They learn through Machine learning. In Machine learning (ML), computer systems are trained to learn from data, find patterns and make decisions or predictions and are not programmed for every task. This…

Cloud adoption has outpaced cloud security. Year 2025 saw nearly every organization running some combination of AWS, Azure and SaaS platforms. But only a fraction of these have improved their cloud security posture. This gap has made cloud red teaming one of the most valuable (and also misunderstood) disciplines in offensive security. Unlike traditional network pentesting, cloud attacks rarely rely on exploits. Instead, they exploit what every cloud environment has plenty of, like: • Misconfigured identity settings • Over-permissioned roles • Exposed storage buckets • Weak IAM policies • Unchanged Default configurations • eveloper mistakes in CI/CD pipelines • Poor visibility and logging In this beginner-friendly article, we break down how cloud red teamers actually attack AWS and Azure, the misconfigurations they look for and why identity and not infrastructure…

This year’s biggest breaches weren’t caused by movie-style hackers or exotic zero-days. Instead, they were triggered by simple mistakes, overlooked configurations and of course weak security hygiene. For beginners in ethical hacking, these breaches offer a goldmine of lessons: how attacks start, how they escalate and how defenders can stop them early. As year 2025 comes to an end, in this article we break down the Top 8 real-world breach patterns of 2025, step-by-step, using simple language and explaining attacker logic. These breaches offer so many lessons for cybersecurity learners. By understanding each step, you can sharpen your skills and learn exactly how attackers exploit the smallest cracks in modern systems. So, let’s begin. 1. Coupang Customer Data Exposure A Mega-Scale Reminder: Misconfigurations Still Rule What actually happened: Customer records…

Cybersecurity is shifting faster than ever. With AI-driven attacks, cloudfirst architectures and identity-based infiltration dominating the threat landscape, 2026 is going to mark a turning point. For beginners trying to understand the modern cybersecurity battlefield, in this article we break down ten of the most important emerging threats of 2026, explained simply, visually and in plain language for you. 1. AI Generated Phishing & Voice Cloning Phishing has been an evergreen threat in cybersecurity since a long time. The same will continue the coming year too. However, in 2026, phishing emails will no longer look suspicious. In fact, they will look perfect thanks to AI. Yes, AI tools can now: • Clone someone’s writing style • Reproduce voice messages • Generate identical video messages • Personalize attacks using your online…