There are various misconceptions surrounding the idea of having a safe and operable IT industry and cyber landscape. What people don't manage to fathom is that nothing on the Internet is ever secure. There are different anatomies and different states of security managing the digital systems but none of them are perfect.
Cyber criminals use the best of their practices, tools and other manipulative tactics to hack or infiltrate secured IT based systems on a daily basis. No matter how secure you think your organization is, there are always going to be loopholes and potential nodes of contact which a cyber mastermind has no problem unveiling and using to their advantage.
This is where the idea of having an ethical hacker employed by your organization to check and verify the integrity and security of your technical systems comes to mind. You should try to learn information security online as it won’t only help you emerge out as a better professional, but would also broaden your horizon of understanding technology. Various types of certifications can be touched or be thought of pursuing which are either close or similar to a penetration tester or ethical hacker.
It is very important that you have a professional who is available 24/7 interpreting, configuring, performing various tests and analyzing the current state of the organization's security. If you can't promise the integrity of the data which customers or users willingly provide, whether it's personal or financial, there is no point of you running a business at all.
Ethical hackers are professionals who are at the top of their game and know not only how to detect the vulnerabilities but also how to seize them off so they don't become a problem in the future. Following is a detailed description on ethical hacker’s job responsibilities and description but before you can indulge into it you must know why you are interested in the job;
Reasons for pursuing Ethical Hacking as a career option?
The very first reason which should push you on is the fact that these professionals are very much in demand in the growing cyber and digital market. Businesses and brands can't keep up with the ever-increasing cyber security challenges if they don't have a professional looking for these vulnerabilities and potentially threatening spaces within their security infrastructure.
This reason alone should be enough for you to pursue this career and cash out your skills which you have acquired over the years. Now when you have a clear description of why you should pursue ethical hacking as a career let's move on to more specific details, shall we?
What is an ethical hacker? What do they do?
Ethical hackers are professionals who are always responsible to maintain upbeat security standards of a company or business. They are responsible for testing, configuring, interpreting and overseeing security related details of a dedicated organization or business. After they have successfully narrowed everything to a potential breach or a single troubling element, they begin to work on a permanent solution to contain the problem once and for all. So, the job itself works on two different fronts, first of all they would have to find the vulnerability which might lead to a cyber breach or data theft; secondly they would be required to design the security detail around the very vulnerability they find.
Apart from designing the security detail of an organization these professionals are hard on short-term projects by the companies and perform various testing plus penetration related chores. Penetration testing has taken the world of IT from the neck, because in order to launch a new product, app or software you would first have to make sure that all components are working fine and there is no chance of breach or vulnerability whatsoever. Ethical hackers are also tasked with providing their advice and recommendation to the dedicated companies on matters of serious security concerns. You can provide them with ideas and concepts to move forward and accelerate by pushing their limits and not having to compromise on the security of users who are using their service.
This may indulge the use of setting out a dedicated security pattern, or changing the overall policy of the organization in relation with these security threats and the interaction of users with the software or service company is providing. Let’s look at the job related responsibilities and descriptions that fall under the title of Ethical Hacker.
Job responsibilities of ethical hacker
There are various things which need to be brought into consideration once you have started your journey as an ethical hacker which includes you having to work on various fronts, all at the same time. You will be conducting a nutrition testing of these systems, analyzing the results which were obtained during testing and designing or modifying current security detail of the company around results which you obtained in this whole charade.
This is the professional side of things you need to worry about, but what about interacting with the rest of the employees or sections of development and operations? Yes, you'd have to work on your communication skills as well as other metrics if you want to work as an ethical hacker.
Although it is true that professional aptitude comes first for any job, there are certain other things you shouldn’t leave the sight of while charging for a particular goal for yourself. The same thing applies for the job of ethical hacker. You should have at least a five-year experience working as the penetration tester or networking engineer for a company to be able to become eligible for the job of ethical hacker.
It is also recommended that you learn and acquire the CEH certification online because doing so would consistently help you to strive for excellence and it would also be a lot convenient to learn everything you want to know about the profession than having to learn under the influence of a dedicated school. Furthermore, with online support you would also get to fix your eyes over any other challenges that might jump out in the future.