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The Role of an Ethical Hacker
An ethical hacker is authorized to try and break into a network’s security to find weaknesses and report them to the company. They put their knowledge to safeguard their digital assets and avoid infection. They also use the same tools and techniques as a black hat hacker, but without the desire to cause harm.
The rise of digitization has undoubtedly provided organizations with new chances and limitless possibilities, but it is impossible to ignore the drawbacks. It has made our systems vulnerable to data theft and illegal hacking. Therefore, ethical hackers are in high demand to find security holes in network topologies and devise effective security remedies. Over one billion cyber-security personnel would be required in the next two to three years, according to the latest estimates from industry veterans.
We’ll go through four prominent ethical hacking certification alternatives for ethical hackers (or wannabe ethical hackers) in this article, as well as what to expect from each exam.
Four Well-known Ethical Hacking Course
These four well-known cyber security certifications are helpful for ethical hacking, penetration testing, and other offensive cybersecurity fields.
1. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker is the most comprehensive of all the ethical hacker certifications offered. The CEH exam assesses a cyber-security professional’s basic knowledge of security threats, risks, and countermeasures through lectures and hands-on labs. By showing confirmation of at least two years of cyber-security expertise, an experienced professional can sit for the exam without any training.
To be eligible for the CEH exam, you must have two years of experience working in information security. By completing an official EC-Council training, you can avoid this need.
Depending on the testing location, costs range from $950 to $1,199.
Advice to pass the exam: The EC-Council provides a free CEH Exam Blueprint that describes the topics present in the multiple-choice exam. Previous test takers said that taking Boson’s sample examinations to understand the test questions helped them pass.
2. GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN)
The GPEN certification could be a good fit if you’re interested in penetration testing, which is a task that falls within the ethical hacking umbrella. Obtaining a GPEN certifies your ability to conduct penetration testing using the most up-to-date techniques and procedures. Test planning, scope, and recon are covered, as well as scanning and exploitation, password assaults, and web application pen-testing.
There are no prerequisites to be eligible to take the GPEN exam.
The cost of the exam is $2,499.
Advice to pass the exam: Take advantage of the two practice exams that come with the exam registration. These examinations are made to look and feel like an actual exam. This can assist you in anticipating what to expect and identifying areas that may require more investigation.
3. CompTIA PenTest+
CompTIA’s PenTest+ exam is one of a kind since it includes multiple-choice and performance-based questions that test your ability to solve problems in a simulated environment). The exam assesses your ability to conduct penetration tests in a range of contexts, including cloud, onsite, hybrid, web application, and internet of things (IoT)
There are no prerequisites; however, CompTIA advises that you have three to four years of experience in information security and have mastered the subject included in the Network+ and Security+ tests.
The cost of the exam is $370
Advice to pass the exam: Because the PenTest+ exam examines your knowledge in various methods, it’s a good idea to prepare with multiple study materials.
4. Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)
The OSCP is another highly sought-after certification for pen testers, ethical hackers, and offensive-minded security professionals. It assesses your ability to penetrate a succession of target devices and generate complete reports for each attack.
There are no official qualifications to take the exam. But you should be familiar with networking, bash scripting, Perl or Python, and Linux, according to Offensive Security. Before taking the exam, you might want to consider taking the Penetration Testing with Kali course.
The cost of the exam is $999
Advice to pass the exam: Practice taking technical notes as you go through boxes or problems during your preparation. For your notes, make a table of contents so you can quickly find what you need on test day if you come across a difficulty that appears familiar. It’s also good to prepare an exploit report template before the exam.
Conclusion
A data breach is becoming more expensive. In 2018, the cost of a violation climbed by 6.4 percent, averaging $3.86 million per breach. The demand for certified ethical hackers is expanding tremendously, as it takes an average of 196 days to uncover a data breach. There are plenty of chances for certified ethical hackers, but certification, expertise, and strong ethics are essential for anyone trying to make a career out of ethical hacking.
