Do you know 2019 alone reported over 313,000 cybersecurity incidents in India? The pandemic exponentially increased the numbers, and in July 2020, India recorded its highest number of attacks at 4.5 million.
No denying, recovering from a cyberattack costs both time and money, and in many cases, the organizations never recover at all. Cybercrimes, specifically data breaches, have the ability to damage the reputation of a company with its clients and customers, and many times, can also lead to legal action. Thus, it is no wonder that ethical hacking skills are crucial to any organization having a substantial digital footprint. And since in the globalized and hyper-connected world of today, every business has a considerable digital imprint, the need and significance of ethical hacking cannot be negated.
So, while varied industry verticals are seeking ethical hacking professionals, what exactly are the abilities that make an ethical hacker stand out in their eyes? We, at JobsAcademy, will be outlining the answer in this article today. Read on.
Networking skills
Networking skills are necessary for ethical hackers as it helps them identify breaches and weaknesses in the network. The computer network is basically the interconnection of multiple devices, which are generally known as Hosts. And these hosts remain connected through multiple paths to receive and send data or media.
Understanding networks like Subnetting, Supernetting, DHCP, and the likes allow ethical hackers to explore different interconnected devices in a network and the possible security threats originating out of this, along with the ways to deal with the threats.
Besides, ethical hackers also need to be aware of various network topologies like Mesh topology, Bus topology, Star topology, and Ring topology.
Programming skills
Programming refers to the act of writing codes that are understood by computational devices to perform different instructions. In simple words, programming skills are the ways to interact with computers and offer instructions to perform the coded actions, and you will need this skill in your arsenal in order to taste success.
As an ethical hacker, you need to understand the logical and technical elements of writing codes to perform specific tasks. Unless you are well-versed in different programming languages like C, C++, JAVA, PYTHON, C#, .NET, JAVASCRIPT, HTML, and PHP, you will fail to find an error or vulnerability in the code.
Even the slightest bit of error in the code can cause major damages to the working mechanism and security of the system. Only an expert hacker with solid programming skills will know how to handle the codes carefully.
Basic hardware skills
For a layman, the term hacking has nothing much to do with computer hardware and everything to do with its software component. However, the software is a set of instructions stored and run by hardware, and in order to get to the former, the hacker has to understand the latter.
In fact, computer hardware is just as vulnerable to getting hacked, and many times, this is where the hacking starts. Reports suggest that attacks on IoT devices are up by almost 300%, and there is no chance foreseeable that number will improve in the near future. The reason is simple: most users know about software attacks and keep the security systems updated, while hardware remains vulnerable. Hence, having your hardware skills just as much updated as the software skills is definitely going to help a great deal in the profession of ethical hacking.
Database skills
A Database Management System (DBMS) is the software designed to store, retrieve, define, and manage data in a database. The black hat hackers target databases for stealing their sensitive information and misusing or selling critical data.
Thus, ethical hackers need to know the effective ways to fix the security threats and vulnerabilities of multiple databases like Oracle, MySQL, or SQL. Database Management System skills let you perform all the essential operations on the database like deleting, updating, reading, and creating.
A deeper understanding of DBMS will help you examine systems for data integrity and thereby strengthen the security boundaries of the systems.
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the complex process of recovering the designs, requirement specifications, and functions of different products from its code analysis.
Ethical hackers need to have a thorough knowledge of reverse engineering to accelerate the maintenance work by enhancing a system’s understandability and producing the required documents for legacy systems. Since ethical hackers handle the professional responsibility of assessing the resilience of systems, they widely use reverse engineering to make sure that the system does not present any major vulnerability or security flaw. As such, their aim is to make the system stronger than they found it.
Having said that, we, at JobsAcademy, understand that it is undoubtedly hard work to reverse engineer a strongly protected web or mobile application. But then therein lies the proof of the ethical hacker’s training and acumen in safeguarding the system. Isn’t it!
Linux skills
Linux is the community of open-source Unix-like operating systems that are based on the Linux Kernel. And for professional success, getting acquainted with Linux is of utmost importance.
It’s an open-source and free operating system, and its source code can be distributed and modified to anyone non-commercially or commercially under the General Public License. The chief reason for ethical hackers to learn Linux is that it is comparatively more secure than other kinds of operating systems in terms of security.
Of course, this does not mean that Linux is one hundred percent secure. It does have a number of malware for it, but still, it’s less vulnerable than other operating systems. Thus, it usually does not need any anti-virus software.
Cryptography skills
Cryptography refers to the study and application of techniques for reliable communication in the presence of third parties known as adversaries. It focuses on developing and analyzing protocols that stop malicious third parties from recovering data being shared between two entities, thus following different aspects of information security.
Cryptography deals with converting a normal text called plain text to a non-readable format called cipher-text in the course of the transmission to turn it incomprehensible to the hackers. Ethical hackers need to make sure through cryptographic methods that the communication between two teams or people within an organization doesn’t leak.
Problem-solving skills
At the end of the day, ethical hackers are problem solvers for the company or organization where they are hired. With all the analytical and technical skills they hold, ethical hackers also need to be critical thinkers and dynamic problem solvers, open to learning new ways to ensure all the security breaches are thoroughly checked.
The black hat hackers are always going to come with ingenious ways to hack into systems, and thus, you will have to stay ready to foil those attacks. No wonder the professionals that taste success in this field are the ones with the ability to look at a glitch or an issue and devise multiple avenues to address it.
As it can be well understood from the above discussion, a successful ethical hacker has multivariate skills, all of which are honed to perfection. And at JobsAcademy, we help ambitious minds to achieve the very perfection in the arena of ethical hacking by honing the much-needed skills in them. We have a team of dedicated and experienced mentors who know how to enhance your skill set to make you stand out in the world of cybersecurity and ethical hacking. So, if you have the zeal to explore the world of data security and system protection and make a career in the same, we, at JobsAcademy, are here to offer you the training that leads you to a glorious future ahead.
