Did someone just suggest you opt for certification in ethical hacking? Or your mind wandered the world of possibilities when your friends were discussing the list of cool professions. Whatever might be your means to this end, we are here to gladly introduce you to the badass world of ethical hacking and the responsibilities that come with it.
As nefarious as it sounds, hacking was not a destructive word when first coined. Over the years, people with less honest and malicious intentions have left bad impressions of the word hacking.
Ethical Hacking: Definition
Originally, hacking is defined as the practice of altering the features of a system to achieve a goal that is beyond the creator’s original scope. While hacker is a skilled programmer who is an expert in computer operating systems and machine code.
Why is Ethical Hacking an attractive career?
If you enjoy spending most of your time behind the computer screen gauging the exciting possibilities in the world of the dark web and are curious to unfold its secrets, well you may better opt for ethical hacking to get paid for your interests. Ethical hacking is not only enticing in books but it holds real-world treasures for those who relish the challenges and opportunities in the computer world. This is like using your destructive computer skills to safeguard the interests of your clients by pointing out the vulnerabilities in their systems. Plus, ethical hackers act in a lawful capacity, so you get to be one of the good guys’ team.
How to become an ethical hacker step by step?
The first step to this ladder is to obtain a Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH) certification. This certification helps you attain master skills in network security and preventing malicious hacking through pre-emptive countermeasures. The CEH certification is a vendor-neutral certification for IT professionals who seek to identify and thwart malicious hackers with the same knowledge base and skill set as them.
These credentials keep you on the right side of the law and mandate you to abide by the law and adhere to the code of ethics. International Council of E-Commerce, (EC-Council), a member-supported professional organization, sponsor these credentials. EC-Council is responsible to set and maintain the standards for the ethical hacking profession and to educate the professionals about their roles and responsibilities towards society.
To obtain the certification, students with 2 years of security-related job experience can apply for approval to take the EC-Council exam. Those without 2 years of experience will be required to undergo training sessions under an accredited training centre, through an approved academic institution or an approved online program. (Insert appropriate links)
The CEH Training Program
The CEH training program prepares the students to appear in the CEH 312-50 exam. Appin Indore pay special attention that all the aspects of the CEH course are covered in the training session. Our CEH program is designed to cover 18 modules with over 270 attack technologies and real-life hacking scenarios. This program enables the students to become exam-ready along with being equipped to handle the real-life ethical hacking and penetration testing scenarios that might come their way.
The CEH 312-50 Exam
Duration: 4 Hours
Length: 125 Multiple-choice questions
Areas to test:
Introduction to ethical hacking
Scanning networks
Footprinting and reconnaissance
Enumeration
Malware threats
Sniffing
System hacking
Social engineering
Denial of service
Hacking web servers
Hacking web applications
Session hijacking
SQL injection
Hacking wireless networks
Hacking mobile platforms
Cloud computing
Cryptography
Evading IDS, firewalls, and honeypots
Job Prospects for Ethical Hackers
The job market for IT security professionals is ‘hot’, as they call it. Every year this industry requires 100000 fresh IT security professionals to meet the demand. As an ethical hacker, you need to utilize your technical and security expertise to combat malicious black-hat hackers and secure the network of the organization that hired you. Your findings and your suggestions are used to improve and strengthen the network security of the organization.
Background checks and rigid personnel security investigations (PSIs) are common in this job market. Security clearances are a must at government agencies and private firms with government contracts.
Now let’s talk about the most important aspect of this discussion, money. As per the statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the job growth rate for the decade ending 2026 for the IT security field will be 28%. The 2018 median annual pay according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is $98350 for IT security professionals.
As astonishing as this figure sounds, it is very close to reality. Cyber warfare has gained pace in the last decade with the interests of many high-profile enterprises at stake. With industries of national importance at stake, the investment in the IT security front touched the trillion-dollar mark.
While the job market is still hot for those with appropriate credentials and experience, IT security consultancies and penetration testing companies stand to hugely benefit from this turmoil scenario. If you own an IT security consultancy or a penetration testing company, we are talking about a figure exceeding $120000 as an average annual income for you.
Bug Bounty Program
Don’t stop here! Being an ethical hacker, your sources of income are not limited to the job and IT security consultancy. Let us introduce another avenue of income, ‘the bug bounty program’.
Vulnerability rewards program (VRP) aka bug bounty program is a crowdsourcing initiative under which ethical hackers are rewarded to discover and report a software bug. These programs are initiated to improve internal code audits and penetration tests which are a part of the organization’s vulnerability management strategy.
Ethical hackers are required to submit bug reports to get rewarded. Such bug reports should have enough information for the organization to trace the vulnerability. The reward amount is determined based on the size of the organization, the effectiveness of internal controls and the destructive impact of the bug detected.
There are some organizations which are popular for putting out such bug bounty programs. Facebook has paid as high as $20000 for a single bug report while Mozilla paid flat $3000 for bugs that are considered valid. Microsoft paid James Forshaw, a UK researcher, $100000 for a vulnerability in Windows 8.1. In 2016, Apple announced a reward of $200000 for a flaw in the iOS secure boot firmware components and a reward of $50000 for the execution of arbitrary code with unauthorized iCloud access or with kernel privileges.
Here is a list of some open bug bounty programs, if that interests you.
All this sounds alluring, right?
Now, if you are looking for an accredited training institute for the Certified Ethical Hacking Course, look no further. Every year we help thousands of students to find their way into the corporate world with this highly valuable certification course. Visit Appin and set the sails for becoming an accolade IT security professional. For more details about the CEH course, click here.
