What is ethical hacking?

This pandemic has forced everyone to be in their houses but also has forced people to think out of the box to pass their time as well as give their hobbies a new start. Ethical hacking has always been a fascinating topic among youngsters, many have shown interest but does not have a proper introduction to ethical hacking. If you are someone who enjoys the world of computers and relishes a challenge, then ethical hacking can be an enticing prospect for you. You get the chance to utilize your skills to break into systems, and you get good money for doing it ethically. Like many careers, this as well is not easy to get started in the field, but if you put in efforts and with the right training you will be able to achieve your career goal.

What is ethical hacking?

Ethical hacking is a structured hacking performed to reveal a vulnerability in a system, using appropriate tools and techniques with the company's knowledge and consent. Ethical hackers or white hat hackers usually use similar means which are commonly used by black hat hackers and execute the task by hacking like any other black hat hacker. The job of an ethical hacker or white-hat hacker is to locate and penetrate the vulnerabilities in any system and recommend the necessary solution to fix them.

Advantages of ethical hacking-

1. Discover vulnerabilities from black hat hackers view so that weak areas can be fixed.
2. Executing a secure network that prevents security breaching.
3. Acquire the trust of customers by ensuring the safety of their data.
4. Helping protect the network of the organisation with a real-world assessment.

How to get started?

On the road to becoming a certified ethical hacker, the primary thing to consider first of all is to understand your field that you are coming from. One needs to know what is ethical hacking and network security works. There are certain certifies ethical hacker prerequisite knowledge required.

Step – 1  To begin with, you may want to start with basics and fundamentals to networking such as – Network+ or A+, and should be familiar with all the basics of computer technology and networking.

Step – 2  After gaining some experience and learning more about hacking, after a few years you may now put efforts into getting certification and gain security position in an organization.

Step – 3  Meanwhile, working as an ethical hacker 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 officially work as an ethical hacker and work in any organization you wish to.

One must have a piece of good knowledge about the above areas to start learning about hacking. When one knows about the fundamentals of IT, one can easily break through the vulnerabilities of the system.

One must have heard about computer hacking classes however one should always go for an ethical hacking degree or certified ethical hacker course online. 

Ethical hacking course details are as follows-

To become a CEH and attain this certification, one needs to master certain skills such as penetration testing, footprinting and reconnaissance, and social engineering. In Official ethical hacking course syllabus 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.

How to prepare for exam?

To become a certified hacker one needs to appear for the ethical hacking exam. The Certified Ethical Hacker certification will fortify the application knowledge of security officers, auditors, security professionals, site administrators, and anyone concerned about the integrity of the network infrastructure. For more information on CEH application process you can visit Ecouncil.org website.

Some of the useful resources:

• Ecouncil website
• Various books available online
• Wikipedia and googling "how to" might help a lot.
• Youtube videos can be a great source of information as there are many informative videos available for everyone to watch.
•  You can set up Linux box with Apache or buying a Cisco router and try your hands on it.
• You can 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.

CEH training 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