Handle With Linux

Many times I have experienced windows system administrators who just didn't care about Linux.
These people are not against Linux, they just don't have very much of an opinion about it.

If I try to convince someone like that, I can take my whole live just trying to convince them to even try it.
But I found a way to make them experience Linux.

Penetration testing

When I tell them what you can do with Linux, they only think about the effort it will take to learn a new OS.
But when I mention penetration testing I see this little twinkle in their eye. Most system administrators (not enough) are interested in security. So often when I tell them there is a Linux distribution completely aimed at penetration testing they are eager to try. When I show them some of the things you can do with the tools included in backtrack, which I can easily boot from usb stick, they are often so impressed they want to have their own copy.

Security tools

Backtrack is a Linux distribution aimed at penetration testers, it comes with a great collection of security tools and custom scripts installed. Some of the tools are only usable by very advanced users, other tools are so easy a kid can use them. I do have to say, using most of these tools on systems you don't own yourself and where you don't have permission by the owner, is likely to end you without a job or in jail.

Ubuntu based

The latest release of backtrack, Backtrack 4 beta, is now based on Ubuntu. In my opinion this is the best choice they could have made. This makes it even easier for unexperienced users (read windows system administrators) to use it. And in the process they learn to use Linux, and they learn about the ease in which windows systems are compromised. This makes them spread the word, show management and promote Linux.

Showing off

I show this to system administrators and home users as much as I can, it's so much fun to see their eyes pop out as you dump windows password hashes and crack them in a few minutes using rainbow tables.
Or when I show them the plethora of windows exploits which are easily executed on their systems and the things metasploit makes a breeze to do when a system is compromised.

Awareness

Backtrack is not only a great penetration testing tool, it's also a great tool to convince people.
I think it's always a good thing to make people more security aware, and it's just as important to make people more Linux aware.

Download

The Backtrack iso is available for download here

USB install

To make a bootable usb stick:

just mount the iso or extract it to your disk (or burn it of course)

Copy the BT4 and boot folders to the USB stick

run bootinst.sh in the boot folder on the usb stick (if you are on windows run bootinst.bat)

And you're ready to go.

More info

More info on the remote-exploit wiki