People often get confused about the terms Cyber Security and Ethical Hacking. In simple, Ethical hacking is a part of Cybersecurity Ethical Hacking has been a lucrative career option these days which never gets bored. In this article, we are going to guideline your path to become an ethical hacker.
Firstly, who
is an Ethical Hacker?
Before going to know who an ethical hacker is, one
needs to know what hacking is?
Hacking is a process of identifying and
exploiting vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access into the systems to
perform malicious acts. Malicious activities range from deleting system files
to stealing information. Hacking is legal if it’s done with the permission of the
target organization. Hacking is illegal if it's done without permission, those
hackers are called Black Hat Hackers.
Computer experts often get hired by organizations or companies to hack into their systems in order to find vulnerabilities and get them fixed. This computer expert called White Hat A hacker should be a skilled professional who has excellent technical knowledge.
What
qualifications and skills are required to become an ethical hacker?
Required
skillset:
An ethical hacker should be proficient in:
- Database handling
- Networking
- Operating systems
- Network traffic sniffing
- Exploit buffer overflow vulnerabilities
- SQL injection
Apart from these technical skills, an ethical hacker must have excellent soft skills in order to communicate with the rest of the organization regarding security issues. An ethical hacker must be a creative thinker as black hat hackers are constantly evolving to exploit the target systems.
Some online resources you can learn from:
- StationX-To start as a beginner this is the best choice which is a paid course.
- Udemy-offers free courses on ethical hacking as well as paid courses.
- Cybrary-offers free courses, but you must pay for certification of completion.
- For each of these courses there are few prerequisites in order to start the course.
Future of
Ethical Hacking:
With the increase in technology, we are witnessing a lot of cyber threats. In order to handle this large workforce, there's a need to increase effective Cyber Security tools. One who has these exceptional skills as stated above has a great future as an Ethical Hacker. The scope of these jobs is increasing day by day with full of opportunities in the future as well as in the present time too.
Here are
some main job roles as an Ethical Hacker:
As soon as acquiring CEH certification an ethical Hackers can engage in these jobs.
1.Information Security Analyst: protect's company's sensitive and critical data by taking certain security measures.
2.Security Analyst: Analyzes and assesses vulnerabilities in an organization or in a particular infrastructure it may be in software, hardware, or networking. Analyzes and assesses the threats to infrastructure.
3.Security Consultant: Assess all security measures for an organization. A security consultant is not confined to a single company.
4.Information Security Manager: Manages and controls all aspects of computer security and also ensures that all applications are secure and functional.
5.Penetration tester: In an organization, these testers crack a computer and the purpose is to test its relative security rather than stealing. Simply, experts attempt to find and exploit vulnerabilities.
Salary of
an Ethical Hacker:
A certified ethical hacker (fresher) earns an average salary of Rs 3.5 lakh per annum which increases with experience cumulatively up to more than 15 lakh per year in India.