We live in an era, where all attacks are vulnerable and can arrive from anyplace at any time without any hint. Hence, we need to be skilled, well-funded, and persistent to face the threat.
 |
| What is Certified Ethical Hacking |
What is Ethical Hacking?
Ethical hacking is a proactive form of information security. It is also termed as penetration testing, intrusion testing and red teaming.
The objective of ethical hacking is to assess the security of a network and system's infrastructure. It involves detecting and exploiting any possible vulnerabilities to determine unauthorized access. Vulnerabilities can be either poor system configuration, unknown hardware or software faults, and functional flaws in technical measures.
Definition of "Ethical Hacker"
“Ethical hackers” are also termed as “white hat hackers” as they burst into systems legally and ethically. Them ajorcontrast,among “ethical hackers” and “real hackers” is the legality.
According to the EC-Council, definition for Ethical hacker is outlined as “an individual who is employed within the enterprises a trusted employee who deals with penetrating through system networks using the methods and techniques used by a general Hacker.”
Who are Ethical Hackers?
An ethical hacker is a system networking expert who legally attempts to penetrate through a computer system for the sake of its owners, intended to explore security vulnerabilities that otherwise may be exploited potentially by a malicious hacker.
Ethical hackers use the similar procedures and approaches as their counterparts to test and bypass system's defenses, but rather than proceeding with the advantages of vulnerabilities elevated, they document them and guide through productive path on how to fix them to the organizations so as to improve their overall security.
The work done by ethical hackers for organizations helps them successfully enhance their system security.
What constitutes ethical hacking?
Hacking is considered ethical, if the hacker obeys the below rules:
- Guaranteed permission to enquirer into the network and determinists potential security risks.
- Respecting the individual's or company's privacy.
- Turning off from work, by closing everything and not letting someone else to dive into the computer network.
- Let the company’s software developer and hardware manufacturer aware of security vulnerabilities that have been spotted.
Who is a Certified Ethical Hacker?
Certified Ethical Hacker is a qualification acquired by safeguarding the computer systems and network, using penetration testing techniques.
A Certified Ethical Hacker acknowledges the vulnerabilities in target systems and utilizes the same knowledge as of a malicious hacker, but in a legitimate manner to evaluate the security position of target systems. Upon determining the target system's security posture, a CEH performs preventive, and protective measures to safeguard the system before the occurrence of any actual breach.
Candidates interested in the profession of ethical hacker, need toper form hard to earn a certification to become a Certified Ethical Hacker, or CEH. This certification is issued by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council).
Organizations conduct penetration tests while hiring a certified ethical hacker with the vision of locating and affixing security vulnerabilities.
How to Become an Ethical Hacker
Businesses and government organizations are hiring ethical hackers to evaluate their security posture of the network. They believe employing Ethical hacker and penetration testers help them improve their networks, and application security by preventing data theft and fraud.
Soft Skills
Hacking isn't all about just core. It also involves soft skills, just like any other IT job. All you need is strong work ethic, superior problem-solving skills, and the potential of staying motivated and committed.
Ethical hackers also need to be smart, enriched with skills, and even a little talent of manipulation, since at times there might occur a situation where they need to convince others to disclose credentials, restart systems, execute files, directly or indirectly using tactics to achieve their ultimate goal. Mastering all these acts and being a "social engineer," aids in emerging as a well-rounded ethical hacker.
Stay Legal!
Itis completely unacceptable to engage in "black hat" hacking--that is, intruding into someone else’s network without their prior permission. Being part of such illegitimate activities might kill your career as an ethical hacker. Many of present day government-related organizations are asking for required security clearances and polygraph testing before employing Ethical Hackers. Even regular small size enterprises are running basic background check on the same.
Who should be an ethical hacker?
As with any profession, passion and desire towards the work leads to success. This, combined with enough knowledge of networking and programming, will help a candidate succeed in the field of ethical hacking.
Where are they employed?
Presently, the profession of ethical hacking is expanding. World's leading corporations like Facebook and Apple, as well as certain law enforcement agencies are hiring “white hat hackers” to Endeavor vulnerabilities and secure them. Every organization is employing a bug bounty program that honors those who detect security vulnerabilities.
What do ethical hackers do?
When security measures are not considered seriously, they fall apart. This is when vulnerabilities set in and malignant elements grab the opportunity to penetrate the system.
Here comes" Certified ethical hacker”, to rescue, whose chief job is to attack his own organization’s system to clear out vulnerabilities before “real hackers” does.
Ethical hackers are associated with certain responsibilities. A real hacker employs all the below strategies to penetrate a system:
- An ethical hacker inspects patch installations toensure that they are not exploited.
-A real hacker engages in a social engineering notion like ‘Dumpster diving’ to explore through the trash bins for passwords, and other sticky notes with critical data that is used to create an attack.
- An ethical hacker also employs techniques like ‘shoulder surfing’ to access crucial information or play the “kindness card” to trick employees to part with their passwords.
- An ethical hacker can employ strategies like sniffing networks, bypassing wireless encryption, and hijacking web servers and applications.
- They also deal with difficulties related to laptop theft and employee fraud.
Perceiving how well organizations respond to all the above tactics makes it evident about the strength of security policy and infrastructure of the organization.
Ethical Hacking as Profession
While some argue that there is no concept of “good hacker” and they actually represent bad hackers who have turned good, the profession is here to stay.An ethical hacker strikes the perimeter defenses as well as the social engineering aspects of an organization as a real hacker.
To master the hacking technologies, you need to become one, but an ethical one! The security mindset in any organization should never be limited to certain vendor, technologies or pieces of equipment.
Ethical hacking achieves optimal information security posture in the organization; by hacking it! Here, you can scan, test, hack and secure your own systems.
There are five phases of Ethical Hacking. Reconnaissance, Obtaining Access, Enumeration, Maintaining Access, and managing tracks.
Underground Hacking Tools
The hacking tools lay a path towards identifying when an attack has been used against your targets. By using the same techniques as the bad guys, you can evaluate the security posture of an organization just like any malicious hackers does, identifying weaknesses and fixing them before any enemy recognizes it, otherwise this may lead to potential damage to your organization.
Getting into the mindset of a hacker evaluates both logical and physical security. Ethical Hacker must be in a position to explore each and every possible point to find the weakest link in an organization ranging from the end user, the CEO, configurations, during migrations even the slightest information left in the Dumpster.
Hacking Techniques
Hacking techniques streamlines steps and approaches by which computer programs can be made to act in a certain way. These techniques can be extended and applied to test security procedures. Hacking technologies are used to refer to those tools and programs that can be used by perpetrators against an organization that experiences critical damage. As technology is on rage, the skills required to execute a hack are much lesser as pre-compiled programs are accessible to effect havoc with simple point and click.
How does the job market look like for ethical hackers?
According to a survey, it is expected that this IT Security Sector continues to grow 40% by 2022.
In your budding years as an ethical hacker, you'll be in a position to earn anywhere around $50,000 to $100,000 per year, depending on the company, your IT experience and qualification. But with years of professional experience, you could command nearly $120,000 or more per year.
However, you can't just dive into an ethical hacker position, without any relevant experience. But experience when included with certifications along with some degree requirements does the job perfectly.
No comments:
Post a Comment