How to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker in 2024?

Computers and software systems are vulnerable to malicious attackers who have used them for their benefits ever since their origin. This is when you need to understand the importance of ethical hacking and how vital an ethical hacker is to the web world. 

An authorised attempt to gain unauthorised access to a computer system, application or data is known as ethical hacking. It mainly involves the duplication of strategies used by the malicious attacker. Ethical hackers are security experts that perform the security assessments of an organisation. The mission of an ethical hacker is just the opposite of a malicious hacker. They perform hacking to improve the security prospects of a company with the prior approval of the company and its IT sector.

How to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker?

The rising cyber crimes justify the need for expert ethical hackers. Therefore, ethical hacking is an exciting and growing career for aspiring candidates who meet all the prerequisites needed for this profession.  If you want to pursue a career in Ethical Hacking, Look upon the following steps initially;

  • Analyse why you want to pursue Certified Ethical Hacking
  • Meet the Prerequisites of Becoming A CEH
  • Build certified ethical hacking skills
  • Updated knowledge about the certified ethical hacking exam
  • Stay up to date with the latest trends in ethical hacking
  • Get your Ethical Hacking Certification
  •  Enrol in a Course on Certified Ethical Hacking

Step 1: Analyse why you want to pursue Certified Ethical Hacking

The main attraction that draws certified ethical hackers towards this profession is their fun in hacking and helping the company outsmart other hackers on the dark side. You are also at no risk, along with good pay.

Businesses worldwide are growing, and there is a high need to keep their client's information safe. Here comes the importance of cyber security professionals and certified ethical hackers. To stop cybercriminals and hackers, you need to think like one. Ethical hacking is widely recognised as a vital element for cyber security. However, a reasonably new career possibility can give excellent career progression to the right candidate in this digital world. No wonder they are called the 'White hats.'

The following points make it clear why one should pursue certified ethical hacking:

  • Ever-growing opportunities
  • High salaries
  • Constantly changing industry
  • Always in demand
  • Varied, exciting and intense nature of the job
  • Opportunity to shift from the dark side to white
  • Job satisfaction
  • The fun of hacking without breaking the law
  • Working as a team and building confidence
  • Cool job title.

A certified ethical hacker secures the online assets of an organisation. They prevent unauthorised access to a company's computers, software, servers and other components of its infrastructure.

Check Out: Top Cyber Security Certifications

Step 2: Meet the Prerequisites of Becoming A CEH

Successful candidates who want to pursue certified ethical hacking should advisably have a strong background in computer programming. While there are no formal educational requirements for certified ethical hackers, one needs to have explicit knowledge in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, and information security to understand a steady progression in the field. This may or may not include a bachelor's or master's degree in the above streams. The primary prerequisite for a candidate who wants to do a Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH v11) Course is the 10+2 level.

Step 3: Build certified ethical hacking skills

Ethical hacking is much more than what is portrayed in movies. It is not merely the cracking of a password or stealing data. Ethical hacking, in reality, is to find the vulnerabilities of a computer or network and find the potential threats. Ethickal hacking skills are required for finding any loopholes or weak points in a computer, web application, or network and reporting them to the organisation. This requires many skills, and let us explore the Ethical Hacking Skills listed below ;

  • Computer networking skills
  • Computer skills
  • Linux skills
  • Programming skills
  • Basic hardware knowledge
  • Reverse engineering
  • Cryptography skills
  • Database skills
  • Problem-solving skills

a) Computer networking skills

  • Knowledge about the interconnection of multiple devices or hosts.
  • Understanding networks like DHCP, subnetting, etc.
  • Identification of potential threats to these networks
  • How to handle the threats.

b) Computer skills

  • Data processing, managing computer files, creating presentations, etc
  • Managing database, programming and running calculations in spreadsheets
  • An ethical hacker needs to be a computer system expert.

c) Linux skills

  • Linux is the most secure operating system
  • It is less vulnerable than any other operating system, so Linux skills are needed for a certified ethical hacker.

d) Programming skills

  • The act of writing code understood by a computer device to perform various functions
  • Choosing the best programming language from Python, Java, C++ etc

e) Basic hardware knowledge

  • Knowledge about the machine and how it works
  • Get access to the computer that controls the machine
  • He can use the hardware in the process of hacking once he knows about how it works

f) Reverse engineering

  • The process of recovering the design required specifications and functions of a product from the analysis of its code.
  • Building programme database and generating information
  • To ensure that the system lacks significant security flaws and vulnerabilities.
  • It helps make the system robust by protecting it from hackers and spyware.

g) Cryptography skills

  • To make sure that information between different people inside the organisation does not leak
  • It converts a standard text to an incomprehensive one for the hackers during transmission.

h) Database skills

  • Access to databases by malicious hackers forms a severe threat, and one has to ensure that it is hack-proof.
  • A certified ethical hacker requires a good understanding of different database engines and schemes.
  • Help the organisation build a robust DBMS

i) Problem-solving skills

  • Determine the source of a problem
  • Find an effective solution to the problem
  • Critical thinking and dynamic problem solving
  • Learn new ways of securing the system
  • New ways of problem-solving

Step 4: Updated knowledge about the certified ethical hacking exam

To have updated knowledge about the certified ethical hacking exam is beneficial for a professional in this area to have steady progress in their career as ethical hackers. This Is also important for them to become specialised in a particular place in the moral hacking domain known as subject experts or SMEs.

The Following are some Ethical Exam Certifications;

Step 5: Stay up to date with the latest trends in ethical hacking

Knowing about the latest trends in hacking and staying vigilant is very important for an ethical hacker. For instance, encryption is the new trend in securing network systems. Digital data encryption can considerably lower the risk of malicious hacking. All Cloud service providers give strong encryption for data and control nowadays.

Step 6: Get your Ethical Hacking Certification 

Certified ethical hackers are in great demand both in the private and public sectors. CEH or Certified Ethical Hacking Certification is the most sought after certification in this sector. Salaries and benefits are also attractive for an ethical hacker who possesses CEH certification. Large companies of the world in the financial and IT sector are on the lookout for ethical hackers. Most employers prefer ethical hackers with CEH certifications because they ensure that:

  • They are proficient in different tools with which a malicious hacker operates
  • They are qualified as an ethical hacker
  • They understand the technology along with the ethical responsibilities of the job
  • They know how to look into the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a system

Step 7: Enrol in a Course on Certified Ethical Hacking

Suppose you are passionate about hacking and want to use it productively and positively for the wellbeing of humanity. In that case, if you are pretty sure of your skills and capabilities to become an ethical hacker, the next step in your ladder towards the journey is to enrol in a course on certified ethical hacking. Registering yourself in a study on certified ethical hacking can fetch your job roles like junior security analyst, security analyst, senior security analyst, information security specialist, senior information security specialist and penetration tester. All these job titles have exciting salary scales as well.

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