How to Become an Ethical Hacker

So, mitigating buffer overflows, DDoS, virus attacks amuse you? If yes, you might want to consider attaining Ethical Hacking certification in order to become an Ethical Hacker aka CEH v10 certification holder from EC-Council. The best way to get hired as a cybersecurity professional or penetration tester and help probe and improve organizations network, applications and prevent data theft and frauds.

The adventure may not be the same however, you may take it as a career option after you become an Ethical Hacker and earn handsomely honestly. Besides, it is the best route to tickle your fancies and not get hunted by the cyber police and face prison time as hackers do.

How to get started?

On the road to becoming an Ethical Hacker, the utmost thing to consider first of all is to understand your field that you are coming from. In case, you are still seeking which field you want to go into, considering military services is relative, a very promising option.

Step – 1  To begin with, you may want to start with basics and fundamentals to networking such as – Network+ or A+, the even better option is to get CCNA and attain a tech support position.

Step – 2  Upon gaining some experience, after a few years you may now put efforts into earning basic security certification and gain security position in an organization.

Step – 3  Meanwhile, working at this position you may slowly want to concentrate on penetration testing and learn tools of the trade and work towards gaining CEH certification (Certified Ethical Hacker) offered by EC-Council.

Step - 4  Now, you can begin displaying yourself as an Ethical Hacker.

Do hackers need to be a successful programmer?

Well, learning skills never go waste, however, learning programming skills as a mandatory requirement to become an ethical hacker is an inaccurate assumption.

The Take-Away

Knowing the networking concepts is critical to making a career in Information Security domain. Also, it is pertinent to gain experience in related areas as well, such as - discovering and playing with Linux/ Unix commands and distributions and learning programming skills as well, like -  C, Perl, LISP or Java is beneficial. Also, get some database concepts in SQL.

Certified Ethical Hacking - Training Course from Approved EC-Council Training Partners

Earning a CEH certification is a rigorous process, as already discussed it is the next step upon gaining a few years of security and networking related experience. The Certification preparation assists you understand security issues from a different viewpoint – a hacker’s viewpoint. You start understanding day-to-day exploits, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures.

To become a CEH and attain this certification, you need to master certain skills and concepts such as penetration testing, footprinting and reconnaissance, and social engineering. In Official CEH Training the course of study covers backdoors, viruses, Trojan horses and worms. Also, it includes modules on – SQL injections, Session hijacking, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and system hacking. You may also want to learn how to scan and sniff networks, crack the wireless encryption and evade IDS and honeypots and firewalls.

The Authorized Training Centers offer the official EC-Council ethical hacking training program in multiple delivery modes for your convenience such as – Instructor-led Live classroom training, Online training (by Live instructor). Alternatively, you may also take self-paced training on your own, popularly known as On-Demand training. The instructor-led training program is spread across five consecutive days an aim to prepare you for CEH certification. EC-Council training courses also come with iLabs, it is a subscription-based service which let you log on to virtualized remote machines and practice exercises.

Study Resources for Ethical Hacking Certification Preparation

There are various useful resources for detailed information and study.

• To start with, you may see the resources section on the EC-Council website.

• Another important resource base could be Amazon’s search. It reveals good books on ethical hacking concepts to assist you in preparing for CEH certification.

• Googling is the key – You may ‘google’ through some simple ‘how-to’ articles and blogs that may encourage you further.

• Other small exercises – You can try downloading Firefox add-on Firesheep or Android app Droidsheep and hijack online accounts via Wi-Fi. Remember not to do that on others’ accounts or you can end up in legal trouble.

• There are other ways to sharpen your newly attained skills. You can experiment with the BackTrack Live CD. Also, try enabling WEP security on your wireless router at home and try cracking it. Find our ‘hack this site’ and try your hands and sharpen your skills.

• Some of the interesting stuff could be setting up Linux box with Apache or buying a Cisco router and try your hands on it. 
• In case you want to try your hands on with malware, you can try downloading and try a malware DIY kit or a keylogger and use it to experiment on an old PC or virtual machine.
• Network with peers – Ethical hacking has conferences such as – Defcon – it is one of the oldest and largest conferences. Visiting these places are one of the best ways to meet and network with others with similar interests to discover and know more about hacking.

 

Jobs for Ethical Hackers – How is the market?

Despite the past economic turmoil, the job prospects and the IT market demand for Information Security professionals continues to grow exponentially. As the Information Security is one of the most pressing concerns of today’s growing organizations, information security budget is expected to increase by nearly 40 percent.

Certified Ethical Hacker Salary - How much is an Ethical Hacker paid in India?

Salary of CEH according to different Designations: 

DESIGNATIONS	SALARY IN Rs
Information Security Analyst	4.3 LAKHS
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)	3.5 LAKHS
Security Consultant (Computing / Networking / Information Technology)	5.5 LAKHS
Information Security Manager	12 LAKHS






CEH Exam Cost

CEH Exam Voucher in Pearson Vue cost around $600. For self- study candidates, additional $100 eligibility application fee is required and need to submit a record of two-year information security job experienced duly endorsed by your employer. CEH VUE Exam Voucher is of $600



CEH Certification Requirements - ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To make yourself eligible to even attempt EC-Council CEH, CHFI or ECSA/LPT certification exam you needed to: Pursue or attend Official Training from Authorized EC-Council Training Center – Upon attending Official instructor-led training commonly known as ILT, Computer Based Training (CBT) or Online Live training only from an EC-Council learning partner you are considered eligible to attempt the relevant EC-Council exam.



Attempt Exam without Official Training

To become eligible for EC-Council CEH, CHFI Exam you need to have; 
• At least two years of information security related experience.
• Remit a Fee i.e. – non-refundable Fee of USD 100.00.
• Application Form for exam eligibility needs to be submitted.
• Purchase an Official exam voucher from EC-council Web store.



CEH Certification Syllabus

Skills Measured The exam 312-50 tests CEH candidates on the following 18 domains.
• Introduction to Ethical Hacking
• Footprinting and Reconnaissance
• System Hacking
• Malware Threats
• Scanning Networks
• Enumeration
• Denial of Service
• Session Hijacking
• Sniffing
• Social Engineering
• Hacking Web servers
• Hacking Web Applications
• Hacking Mobile Platforms
• Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots
• SQL Injection
• Hacking Wireless Networks
• Cloud Computing
• Cryptography



Benefits of CEH v10 - Recent Trends and Forecast

It is relatively a younger sector in the IT industry and it is tremendously and rapidly growing and expected to further take exponential evolution in coming years. Let alone in India, it is estimated that in coming years the requirement for security professionals will be 500,000. For now, there is still a big gap in demand and supply which begets big opportunity for aspiring Information Security professionals. According to some surveys, – annual salary of ethical hacker averages INR 570,000, the salary range for Chief Security officers range from INR 12 Lakh (1.2 million) a year to INR 80 Lakh (8 million). The data also shows that Bangalore has 20.5 percent of the market share of skills security professionals followed by NCR. The top sector to employ information security professional is Internet service providers/ telecom, followed by banking/financial services. Also, it is interesting to find out that average work experience for security professionals is nearly 7 years. Additionally, it has been observed and projected that IT security sector is expecting a huge growth and evolution with the increase in the online transaction, growing concern and threats and new technology upgrades every other day.