Do viruses, DDoS attacks, or buffer overflows stimulate you?
If you answered yes, you might want to become a legal, or a certified ethical
hacker. Ethical hackers are also known as white hat" hackers or
penetration testers.
Businesses and government-related organizations that are
serious about their network security hire ethical hackers and penetration
testers to help probe and improve their networks. The
ultimate goal for the ethical hacker is to prevent data theft and fraud. You
will not receive the same adrenaline rush that you would with underground
hacking, but you can earn a good and honest living, and not end up facing
prison time, as some illegal "black hat" hackers do.
How does the labor market appear for ethical hackers?
Answer, extremely strong! The IT market overall continues to grow despite the
current economic turmoil in the US. Research firm Gartner estimates that
worldwide enterprise IT spending grew by 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, to
a total of $2.7 trillion. At the same time, security is becoming a vital
concern. Gartner expects to see an increase of nearly 40 percent in spending on
worldwide security services during the five-year period from 2011 to 2015,
eventually surpassing $49.1 billion.
During your first years as a certified ethical hacker,
you'll be in a position to earn a good living.
You will not be able to simply dive into an ethical hacker
position. If you don’t have IT security experience, you won't go very
far, even with several degrees and certifications. As is true for other IT
jobs, employers typically want candidates who have college degrees, but related
experience is king in the information technology industry. If you have
experience with certifications they will typically take the place of many
degree requirements.
Starting your CEH career
What you need to do to get started on the road to becoming
an ethical hacker depends on where you are in the IT field. If you haven't
started your IT career yet, you might want to consider military service. The
military offers many IT opportunities, and you get paid to go to school, even
if you enlist in a part-time branch of our armed forces such as the National
Guard or Reserves. Military service also looks good on your record to employers
that require security clearances.
Start with the basics: Earn your A+ Certification and get a
tech support position. After some experience and additional certifications
including: MCSE or CCNA, move up to a network support or admin role, and then
to senior network engineer. Next, put some time into earning
security certifications: Security+, CISSP, or CCNP. Next look for
an information security position. While you're there, try to concentrate on
penetration testing and get some experience with the tools of the trade. Then
work toward the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification offered by the
International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council for
short). At this point, you will start marketing yourself as a certified ethical
hacker.
For a hacker, networking know-how is vital; but make sure
that you gain experience in related areas as well. Discover and play with
Unix/Linux commands and distributions. Make sure you learn some
programming--maybe C, LISP, Perl, or Java. Spend some time with databases
such as SQL.
Hacker Soft Skills
Hacking isn't all technical. It also requires so-called soft
skills, just as any other IT job does. You'll need a strong work ethic, very
good problem-solving and communications skills, and the ability to remain
motivated and dedicated.
Ethical hackers need street smarts, people skills, and even
some talent for manipulation, since at times they need to be able to persuade
others to disclose credentials, restart or shut down systems, execute files, or
otherwise knowingly or unknowingly help them achieve their ultimate goal.
You'll need to master this human behavior aspect of this career, which people
in the business sometimes call "social engineering," to become a
successful ethical hacker.
Stay within the law!
It's important not to engage in "black hat"
hacking, which is, intruding or attacking anyone's network without their full
permission. Engaging in illegal activities, even if it doesn't lead to a
conviction, will kill your ethical hacking potential career. Many of the
available jobs are with government-related organizations and require security
clearances and polygraph testing. Even regular companies will perform at least
a thorough background check.
Becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
As noted earlier, becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
involves earning the appropriate credential from EC-Council after a few years
of security-related information technology experience. The certification will
help you understand security from the point of view of a hacker. You'll learn
the common types of exploits, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures involved in
reducing and possibly eliminating hacker attacks.
Qualification for a CEH (a vendor-neutral certification)
involves mastering penetration testing, foot printing and reconnaissance, and
social engineering. The course of study covers creating Trojan horses,
backdoors, viruses, and worms. It also covers denial of service (Do’s) attacks,
SQL injection, buffer overflow, session hijacking, and system hacking. You'll
discover how to hijack Web servers and Web applications. You'll also find out
how to scan and sniff networks, crack wireless encryption, and evade IDSs,
firewalls, and honeypots.
Through approved EC-Council training partners, which ABCO
Technology is one, you can complete a full hands-on course and pass the CEH
exam.
For more information visit us online @ ABCO Technology
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