Think hacking is all about the dark web and hackers only do dirty work under a veil all the time? What do you think an ethical hacker does? What is the sectoral outlook of the sector? What are the salary packages, syllabus of the certification?

Learn more about this and other topics in this blog.

So, mitigating buffer overflows, DDoS, virus attacks amuse you?

If yes, you might want to consider attaining Ethical Hacking certification in order to become an Ethical Hacker aka CEHv11 certification holder from EC-Council.

The best way to get hired as a cybersecurity professional and help probe and improve organizations network, applications and prevent data theft and frauds. The adventure may not be the same however, you may take it as a career option after you become an Ethical Hacker.

How to get started with Ethical Hacking?

On the road to becoming an Ethical Hacker, the utmost thing to consider first of all is to understand your field that you are coming from. In case, you are still seeking which field you want to go into, considering military services is relative, a very promising option.

Step – 1  To begin with, you may want to start with basics and fundamentals to networking such as – Network+ or A+, the even better option is to get CCNA and attain a tech support position.

Step – 2  Upon gaining some experience, after a few years you may now put efforts into earning basic security certification and gain security position in an organization.

Step – 3  Meanwhile, working at this position you may slowly want to concentrate on penetration testing and learn tools of the trade and work towards gaining CEH certification offered by EC-Council.

Step - 4  Now, you can begin displaying yourself as an Ethical Hacker.

Skills Required to Become a Ethical Hacker -

Well, learning skills never go waste, however, learning programming skills as a mandatory requirement to become an ethical hacker is an inaccurate assumption.

The Take-Away

Knowing the networking concepts is critical to making a career in the Information Security domain. Also, it is pertinent to gain experience in areas such as - discovering Linux/ Unix commands and distributions and learning programming skills like - C, Perl, LISP or Java is beneficial. Also, get some database concepts in SQL.

Certified Ethical Hacking - Training Course from Approved EC-Council Training Partners

Earning a CEH certification is a rigorous process, as already discussed it is the next step upon gaining a few years of security and networking related experience. The Certification preparation assists you understand security issues from a different viewpoint – a hacker’s viewpoint. You start understanding day-to-day exploits, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures.

To become a CEH and attain this certification, you need to master certain skills and concepts such as penetration testing, footprinting and reconnaissance, and social engineering. In Official CEH Training, the course 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 – Online Instructor-led Live training and Video Recorded sessions.

Alternatively, candidates may even opt for self-paced training, popularly known as On-Demand training. The training program is spread across five consecutive days and aims to prepare you for CEH certification. EC-Council training courses also come with iLabs, it is a subscription-based service that lets you log on to virtualized remote machines and practice exercises.

Study Resources for Ethical Hacking Certification Preparation

There are various useful resources for detailed information and study.

• To start with, you may see the resources section on the EC-Council website.
• Another important resource base could be Amazon’s search. It reveals good books on ethical hacking concepts to assist you in preparing for CEH certification.
• Googling is the key – You may ‘google’ through some simple ‘how-to’ articles and blogs that may encourage you further.
• Other small exercises – You can try downloading Firefox add-on Firesheep or Android app Droidsheep and hijack online accounts via Wi-Fi. Remember not to do that on others’ accounts or you can end up in legal trouble.
• There are other ways to sharpen your newly attained skills. You can experiment with the BackTrack Live CD. Also, try enabling WEP security on your wireless router at home and try cracking it. Find our ‘hack this site’ and try your hands and sharpen your skills.

Certified Ethical Hacker Salary - How much is an Ethical Hacker paid in India?

• Some of the interesting stuff could be setting up Linux box with Apache or buying a Cisco router and try your hands on it. 
  • In case you want to 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.
  • Network with peers – Ethical hacking has conferences such as – Defcon – it is one of the oldest and largest conferences. Visiting these places are one of the best ways to meet and network with others with similar interests to discover and know more about hacking.

Salary of CEH according to different Designations:

CEH Exam Cost

• The CEH exam costs US $1,199.
• Retaking the exam cost US $450.
• Applying to take the exam costs US $100 without verified training

CEH Certification Requirements - ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To make yourself eligible for the EC-Council certification exam you needed to: attend Official Training from Authorized EC-Council Training Center – Upon attending Official instructor-led training commonly , Computer Based Training (CBT) or Online Live training only from an EC-Council learning partner you are considered eligible to attempt the relevant EC-Council exam.

Attempt Exam without Official Training

To become eligible for EC-Council CEH, CHFI Exam you need to have.

CEH Certification Syllabus

The CEHv11 exam has 20 modules as part of the syllabus:-

• Module 01: Introduction to Ethical Hacking
• Module 02: Footprinting and Reconnaissance
• Module 03: Scanning Networks
• Module 04: Enumeration
• Module 05: Vulnerability Analysis
• Module 06: System Hacking
• Module 07: Malware Threats
• Module 08: Sniffing
• Module 09: Social Engineering
• Module 10: Denial-of-Service
• Module 11: Session Hijacking
• Module 12: Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots
• Module 13: Hacking Web Servers
• Module 14: Hacking Web Applications
• Module 15: SQL Injection
• Module 16: Hacking Wireless Networks
• Module 17: Hacking Mobile Platforms
• Module 18: IoT Hacking
• Module 19: Cloud Computing
• Module 20: Cryptography

Recent Trends and Forecast

It is relatively a younger sector in the IT industry and it is tremendously and rapidly growing and expected to further take exponential evolution in coming years. Let alone in India, it is estimated that in coming years the requirement for security professionals will be 500,000. For now, there is still a big gap in demand and supply which begets big opportunities for aspiring Information Security professionals.

According to some surveys, – annual salary of ethical hacker averages INR 570,000, the salary range for Chief Security officers range from INR 12 Lakh (1.2 million) a year to INR 80 Lakh (8 million). The data also shows that Bangalore has 20.5 percent of the market share of skills security professionals followed by NCR. The top sector to employ information security professional is Internet service providers/ telecom, followed by banking/financial services.

Also, it is interesting to find out that average work experience for security professionals is nearly 7 years. Additionally, it has been observed and projected that IT security sector is expecting a huge growth and evolution with the increase in the online transaction, growing concern and threats and new technology upgrades every other day.