How to become a ethical hacker to boost your career

Cybersecurity and professional hacking are developing as attractive career options for the smart IT worker in a digital-first society. Job seekers all around the world are contemplating pursuing a certification in these disciplines owing to the promising possibilities, with industry titans like Google paying ethical hackers a staggering $6.5 million in 2019. However, obtaining consistent information on the best ways to learn ethical hacking can be challenging and perplexing.

Even the term "hacker" has evolved over time. While it was previously linked with those who unlawfully acquired important data for personal benefit, the introduction of ethical hacking broadened that meaning. Professionals might use their hacking talents for good by hacking or analyzing security vulnerabilities to improve an organization's infrastructure.

What exactly is a professional hacker?

A penetration tester is a professional hacker who is paid by a company to examine its systems and report flaws. They are highly skilled professionals that do penetration testing to assess the efficacy of the IT infrastructure. They also investigate internal security flaws and devise solutions to address them.

What Is an Ethical Hacker's Role?

An ethical hacker employs ways to circumvent a system's security in the same manner that a malevolent hacker would, but an ethical hacker does so while keeping the organization informed. Unlike malevolent hackers, they do not exploit security flaws but instead provide ways to mitigate them.

Ethical hackers must do research, document their findings, and consult with management and the IT team. Johnny Longs, founder of Hackers for Charity, emphasizes the necessity of professional hackers in protecting the cyber world in the video below:

Skills Required to Become an Ethical Hacker

Computer equipment and networking concepts

An aspirant who desires to study ethical hacking must have a fundamental grasp of computers, operating systems, and networking. They should also understand the distinction between killing a thread and terminating a process, as well as the fundamentals of process injection and how to activate virtualization in the BIOS. Any more knowledge will be tough to acquire if you do not understand computer gadgets.

Aside from that, you should be familiar with networking principles such as the OSI Model, the TCP/IP Model, IP Addresses, MAC Addresses, Subnetting, Routing & Switching, vLAN, Network Protocols, and so on.

Learn software development life cycle 

It is used to develop high-quality software that prevents cyber attacks. Learning the importance of it will help you easily analyze security issues with software without consuming a lot of time.

Understanding of operating systems

As an aspiring ethical hacker, you should be knowledgeable with operating systems, the command line in Windows, and issues such as UAC and DLLs, changing the Windows registry, establishing virtual machines and servers, and so on.

Because Linux is used by the majority of web servers, you should know how to obtain access in order to check for security flaws. Knowledge of operating systems such as Redhat, Ubuntu, and Fedora will help you advance in your profession faster.

Expertise in penetration testing techniques and tools

As a novice looking to study ethical hacking and make a profession out of it, you should be familiar with penetration testing techniques and tools. Professionals with a fundamental grasp of the subject can readily acquire advanced skills in a course.

Methodologies and standards for penetration testing that are widely used

Good programming experience

To thrive as an aspiring professional ethical hacker, you need have prior coding skills. The better you are at understanding and interpreting code, the brighter your career as a professional hacker or pen tester will be. Python, BASH, and C++/C are among the languages covered in ethical hacking classes. These languages assist experts in understanding harmful code and its intent in order to alter and stop it.

Cybersecurity fundamentals

When pursuing an ethical hacking certification course, it is critical to understand the foundations of cybersecurity. Prior understanding of fundamentals such as device protection, antivirus use, app protection, password management, and so on will help you thrive in the program and succeed in your profession.

Communication abilities

You must have good communication skills because a large part of your job as a professional hacker will include collaborating with other departments to guarantee their systems are secure. To do this, you must educate workers on the principles of phishing and scams so that they do not wind up exchanging personal information with a fraudster.

Hackers also utilize social engineering techniques to gain the trust of unwitting employees. You can stay one step ahead of them by replicating these methods and preventing any information from getting out.

Aside from these abilities, you must keep your knowledge up to date by studying new industry insights and trends. Technology is always developing, and so are vulnerabilities. New case studies emerge on a regular basis, therefore it is critical to broaden your knowledge base after completing your study.

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