All You Need To Know About Ethical Hacking

Technology has penetrated deep into our lives. We are living in a digital age today and are habituated of doing everything with a single tap on a smartphone. While interacting with any digital system, we generate an enormous amount of data.

This data is collected by companies for various purposes. While we rarely think about the dark side of sharing information, hackers take that information very seriously. 

The term ‘hacker’ is most of the time associated with an individual who has wrong intentions and willing to compromise sensitive data for personal gains. Well, that’s just one of the types of hackers known as black hat hackers.

The other type is the white hat hacker or more commonly called an ethical hacker who also intrudes into networks and systems but with proper authorization. Moreover, the intent, in this case, is to inform the organization about loopholes and vulnerabilities in its network before malicious hackers get the chance to exploit them.   

But, why should you care? Basically, knowing about security threats and data breaches is important because your personal data is also at risk. Living in a digital world, there are hardly any people who haven’t shared some of the other details online, be it any social media platform, mobile application, or online banking websites.

While companies now take cybersecurity very seriously, you too have to follow certain best practices while sharing anything over the internet. What if you can do that on a professional front? That’s even better. Becoming an ethical hacker and dealing with malicious hackers is one of the most challenging jobs you can come across.

Let us know more about ethical hacking and how can you start a career in this field. By reading this article, you will also be encouraged to take up an ethical hacking course in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, or any other city.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical hacking is the practice of intruding into an organization’s systems and networks to evaluate the security and identify if there are any vulnerabilities that can result in a cyberattack. Worms, viruses, trojans, ransomware, spyware, and adware are some of the common malware through which the hackers try to gain access to the sensitive data of companies.

Ethical hacking involves the study of all these different kinds of cyber-attacks and the steps that need to be taken in order to safeguard them from harming the systems. 

The major benefit of ethical hacking is the implementation of a secure network where there is a minimal level of risk. It further ensures that all the entry points which hackers can exploit initially are fixed at an early stage.

Moreover, knowing the ethical hacking best practices helps employees keep themselves updated with the newer ways adopted by malicious hackers. If companies can ensure that the data they collect is fully protected, then it also gains the trust of customers as well as investors.  

Ethical hacking is basically of the following types:

• Web application hacking
• System hacking 
• Web server hacking
• Hacking wireless networks
• Social engineering

To better understand the need of ethical hackers, consider this finding – Cisco involved around 2000 security leaders across 11 countries in the Asia Pacific for its 2019 Asia Pacific CISO Benchmark Study and found that many countries receive over 5000 security alerts every single day. And India is one of the top countries that has a high percentage of alerts investigated (57%). Clearly, there are many malicious hackers out in the market and ethical hackers are in high demand to beat them.  

The average cost of a data breach is expected to exceed $150 million in 2020. This explains the reason why companies are investing more in hiring cybersecurity experts, specifically ethical hackers, to deal with possible threats. So now is the time to upskill in this field and start a high-paying career. Many professionals prefer adding ethical hacking certification to their repertoire to get better job opportunities. 

When it comes to ethical hacking certification, you shouldn’t look for any other credential than the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification. Let us know more about this certification.

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification

The CEH certification is offered by the prestigious EC-Council, a certification body that is credited with making 220,000 professionals certified in cybersecurity across 145 countries.

This certification is designed to help professionals gain expertise in penetration testing and establishing minimum standards for credentialing cybersecurity professionals in ethical hacking measures. A certified ethical hacker is capable of looking for vulnerabilities and loopholes in target systems, much the same way as malicious hackers, but with intentions to secure them.  

Professionals who wish to achieve this valuable credential need to sit for the CEH exam and qualify for it. The CEH exam consists of 125 questions of multiple choice type and the time allowed is 4 hours. The passing score is usually based on the difficulty level of the exam and falls in the range of 60% to 85%. 

You’ll be tested in the following domains in the CEH exam:

• Background
• Analysis/Assessment 
• Security
• Tools/Systems/Programs
• Procedures/Methodology
• Regulation/Policy 
• Ethics

Get Certified

Now that you have got an overview of what CEH certification is all about, you shouldn’t have second thoughts regarding it. The average annual salary of a certified ethical hacker is Rs. 490,580, according to Payscale. With experience, such professionals can earn as high as Rs. 700,000 annually. Now one of the important eligibility criteria for the anH exam is attending an official training program.

There are a few training providers whose courses are accredited by the EC-Council and you can go ahead to take them for better preparation. So, learn everything from scratch, get certified, and pave your way to a satisfying career.