Cybersecurity is one of the most rapid-growing fields in computer science. In today’s digitalized world, IoT devices and smartphones have become the powerhouses of information. According to a report conducted by Cisco, by 2030, more than 500 BILLION devices are expected to be connected to the internet.

Each day, we witness a growing number of systems that are being connected to cyberspace. These systems become vulnerable to various attacks from places around the world. Each organization, be that small or large, should be able to protect its intellectual property from such malicious attacks or breaches. What does this mean for professionals in the computer science industry?

The silver lining of such a situation is that job prospects for computer engineers and ethical hackers are on the rise. This is true especially for ethical hackers, whose main duty is to improve the security of organizations’ networks and systems by testing these types of breaches and vulnerabilities.

Ethical hacking is learned through studying and analyzing the mindset as well as the techniques of hackers and penetration testers, in order to be able to examine the ways to identify and correct vulnerabilities in software and computer networks.

What Is Ethical Hacking? 

Ethical hacking refers to the act of testing a system’s networks for any type of vulnerabilities with the purpose of protecting an organization from threats or attacks that may result in financial losses or other system damages. For example, the British Airways case, were fined $230 million as a result of a data breach that affected more than 500,000 of their customers. The damages did not consist of only financial ones, since their brand and reputation was heavily hurt as well. Simply put, an ethical hacker uses methods similar to those of illegal hackers to infiltrate systems in a structured manner, and lawfully try to locate vulnerabilities in network systems. Hence, the difference here is that the ethical hacker does have permission from the authorized organization or personnel to try and break their systems to improve their security systems from real threats, and obviously avoid such unwanted situations like the one mentioned above.

Here are the five main stages of Ethical Hacking:

1. Reconnaissance: In this stage, ethical hackers gather the information that is related to the target system.
2. Scanning: During this stage, they gather additional information about the network and devices, including information about the protocols, services, hosts, live servers, and open ports.
3. Gaining access: This is one of the most crucial steps in the entire ethical hacking process since the ethical hacker will try to obtain access to hosts, networks, applications, or devices that are solely based on the vulnerabilities identified in the scanning phase.
4. Maintaining access: In this phase, once an ethical hacker gains access via a vulnerability, it’s not necessary for that vulnerability to persist, since an end-user might install patches. So, if an ethical hacker wants to maintain access to the device, even though there might be a vulnerability, they sometimes feel the need to install Trojans, spyware, or key loggers to maintain their access.
5. Clearing tracks: In the last stage, the ethical hacker removes all traces of their hack (including spyware, key loggers, or Trojans).

Types of Ethical Hackers

An ethical hacker (white-hat hacker) is an information security professional who helps the organization locate system vulnerabilities and flaws by breaking the system lawfully and ethically. These vulnerabilities are then reported to the competent authorities which can take precautionary steps to prevent any damage to the network or intellectual property.

The following are the three types of hackers:

• White Hat Hackers: As mentioned above, these types of hackers identify vulnerabilities (in software and hardware), flaws, as well as operational inefficiencies. To perform their lawful hack, they have to get permission from the authorized personnel
  These are ethical hackers who identify security flaws, software, and hardware vulnerabilities, and operational inefficiencies. They first gain permission from the organization’s authorized personnel before doing the exercise legally.
• Black Hat Hackers: These types of hackers are the opposite of white hat hackers. They try to gain access to organizations’ systems unlawfully with the sole purpose of stealing and compromising their data to gain monetary benefits, cause mischief, or commit fraud. One of the most recent and biggest hacks is the WannaCry hack, which cost about $4 billion!
• Grey Hat Hackers: Last but not least, these types of hackers conduct both white hat and black hat “tasks.” They might break into organizations’ systems for malicious purposes; however, they might also take jobs in helping organizations to upgrade their security.

What Are the Benefits of an Ethical Hacking Career? 

Considering the continually evolving pace of new malicious attacks, ransomware, spyware, and many other types of hacks, hiring ethical hackers is not an optional choice to make anymore, it’s a must-move in safeguarding the networks and systems of organizations and government agencies. According to a report by the Security Magazine, by 2021, there will be a shortage of 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs.

According to Payscale, the average salary of an ethical hacker comes close to $79,096. It’s quite easy and understandable to see why the ethical hacking profession is in high demand. Another report by OneCisco shows that 29% of organizations have lost direct revenue as a result of a security breach.

PECB’s Certified Lead Ethical Hacker training course will help you train on the advanced practices that hackers use, that way, you can better protect any network or system from data breaches and other malicious attacks. The training course has been designed to help you strengthen your competency in conducting various ethical hacking activities, such as contractual penetration tests of networks and systems.

The main objective of this training course is to help you acquire the necessary knowledge to conduct a penetration test. At the end of the training course, you will obtain the essential knowledge and develop the competence on “How” to conduct a penetration test and “Why” are ethical hackers essential to the security landscape.

Start your ethical hacking career with PECB today! Click here to learn more information.