Nowadays every country is spending billions of dollars to edge towards digital supremacy. Many countries are providing incentives to people who want to pursue a career in digital professions like software engineering. Another digital profession that has gained some notoriety in recent years is ethical hacking. It is one of the most promising careers in the world right now. Ethical hackers work for big companies and try to find vulnerabilities in their systems and they get compensated for that quite well. So, if you’re looking to start a career as an ethical hacker, stay tuned with us till the very end.
What is an ethical hacker?
When thinking about ethical hackers, many people confuse them with normal hackers. People associate ethical hackers with cybercrimes and illegal activities, but their role is the exact opposite. They work for a company and hack into their systems to find any vulnerability within the system to protect it from cybercriminals. Ethical hackers are some of the most sought-after people in the corporate ecosystem because they are of utmost importance when it comes to a company’s security.
How To Become An Ethical Hacker?
Ethical hacking mostly depends on your skills, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need other merits. Here are a few steps to become an ethical hacker:
Earn A Degree
They say that the start is the most important part of a journey. The journey of being an ethical hacker starts from earning a degree in computer science. Why computer science you ask? Computer science is the study of computers, databases, networking and other computer-related things. Ethical hacking is considered an advanced position in security and most ethical hackers have extensive experience in network security. Apply for a computer science degree in a university with a good computer science background and opt for the classes associated with ethical hacking.
Gain Experience
Now that you have a degree and a working knowledge of computers, you can apply for a job. Try and apply for a job that is associated with network or network security. This will help you to get familiar with the systems that are present in companies and how to update them if a weakness or vulnerability comes to light. For starters, you can take any position where you can learn about security. Some prominent options are:
- Security specialist
- Network Engineer
- Security software developer
- Security administrator
While working on a job, you can learn about security and this is the time when you’ll have to work on your programming skills as it is one of the key areas to becoming an ethical hacker.
Get Certification
Contrary to what you’ve seen in the best hacking movies, you need more than just a computer to become a hacker. One of the most important things to getting a job consideration is certification. There are many certification programs you can join to get a certificate in ethical hacking. As we mentioned above, the main thing in ethical hacking is your skills. That being said a certificate is not a mandate, but it will surely boost your CV and increase your chances of bagging a job as an ethical hacker. Mostly, ethical hackers obtain CNNA certification before advancing in the field. If an ethical hacker has this certificate, it means that their knowledge of network security is up to the standard.
What Does An Ethical Hacker Do?
The exact job description of an ethical hacker can vary from company to company. However, most ethical hackers work in network security, so their career revolves around:
1- Security Assessment: Companies hire ethical hackers to asses their company’s network’s security.
2- Threat Modelling: After assessing the problem in a company’s networking system, they come up with plans and solutions to mitigate the threat.
3- Report Writing: Another ethical hacker’s job is to maintain a report of all the weaknesses they found in the system and the plan of action they took to mitigate those weaknesses.
Essential Skills To Become An Ethical Hacker
An ethical hacker should possess basic computer skills. They should know how to use some of the basic ethical hacking software like OpenVAS and Netsparker. Other skills an ethical hacker must have are as follows:
- They should possess basic computer skills
- Knowing programming languages like Python, Java, C++, SQL and a few other such languages.
- Basic hardware knowledge is also required
- An ethical hacker should know cryptography, which is the study of breaking secret codes that are used in secure communications.
- Must possess excellent problem-solving skills.
Final Thoughts
Ethical hacking is one of the fastest-growing professions in the world and this profession is also very future-proof. So, if you’re looking to pursue a career in ethical hacking, it is important to follow the aforementioned steps and develop skills that are relevant to the field.
