Nowadays, it appears that barely seven days pass by without something like one report of an information stolen or security breach. A business may have had their debit or credit card information stolen. A medical coverage organization may have lost the records of those they cover. The government administration loses records of those with clearances and observes what should be private messages being distributed on dissident sites. It appears just as everybody needs service of cybersecurity experts to test their Information Technology Infrastructure.

Organizations and Governments are swinging to cybersecurity experts to help reinforce security by discovering vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Cyber Security is one of the most growing Industry, an ever-increasing number of individuals are utilizing their specialized abilities for both fun and benefit.

What’s an Ethical Hacker?

Albeit Ethical Hackers utilize similar techniques to test and bypass security guards as their less-principled counterparts, they are authorized to discover vulnerabilities. They do this so organizations can record what was found and fix those vulnerabilities as quickly as time permits to enhance security. Ethical hackers additionally give singular administrations to enable individuals to recoup information, email, and archives that might be difficult to reach due to any number of issues.

Why Become an Ethical Hacker?

In the course of the most recent couple of years, the finance and services sector has been employing cybersecurity experts nearly as quick as government contractual workers. Since the making of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, controls have constrained monetary establishments to reevaluate how they oversee cybersecurity—which thus has opened new openings for work for ethical hackers.

The demand for ethical hackers exceeds the supply, which implies that pay rates and advantages are liberal. An ongoing survey of accessible occupations comprises of postings for a portion of the world’s biggest organizations in the budgetary division including Axis Bank, Icici Bank, HSBC, TCS, Infosys.

With the end goal to be considered for work as an ethical programmer, most managers require an ethical hacking Certification. Affirmation tests guarantee that the programmer comprehends the innovation, as well as the ethical obligations of the activity. Since numerous businesses don’t have the skill to in fact assess candidates for these occupations, a confirmation gives them affirmation that the hopeful is qualified.

In any case, what alternatives are accessible for ethical hacking accreditation? The following are three of the most widely recognized and looked for after confirmations today.

1. Certified Ethical Hacker

The Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) is the broadest of all available certification options. The CEH exam is designed to test the cybersecurity professional’s baseline knowledge of security threats, risks, and countermeasures through lectures and hands-on labs. An experienced professional may sit for the exam without any training by submitting proof of at least two years of cybersecurity experience.

Managed by the EC-Council, a significant benefit of the CEH certification is flexibility. The EC-Council has options for instructor-led training, video lectures, and self-study. These options are available online and organizations have the option of contracting EC-Council trainers to conduct on-site training.

Even though many of the job listings for ethical hackers specifically require a CEH certification, it may not always be the best option. A major criticism of CEH is that because of the emphasis on lecture-based training, most of their hacking courses do not provide an adequate amount of hands-on experience.

2. Global Information Assurance Certification Penetration Tester

The Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) program is run by the SANS Institute, one of the oldest organizations that provide cybersecurity education. GIAC offers dozens of vendor-neutral certifications with courses that require hands-on learning. GIAC courses are held online. The company also sponsors research white papers that are provided to the cybersecurity industry without charge.

There are a variety of options to earn the GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN) certification, but it is highly recommended that learners take the SEC560 course on Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking from the SANS Institute; it is one of the most comprehensive courses on the topic and demonstrates that the certificate holder has received a good balance of theory and hands-on training.

3. Certified Penetration Testing Engineer

The Certified Penetration Testing Engineer (CPTE) is a vendor-neutral certification offered by Mile2 for aspiring penetration testing engineers who are looking to enhance their hands-on experience regarding the penetration testing methodologies used by the industry professionals.

The course also covers the five key elements of penetration testing, namely; information gathering, scanning, enumeration, exploitation, and reporting. These five key elements form a basis of discovering the vulnerabilities in a given system. The Certified Penetration Testing Engineer (CPTE) course enhances the business skills needed to identify protection opportunities, justify testing activities and optimize security controls to reduce risk associated with working with the internet. The course utilizes the latest tools, such as Saint, Metasploit through Kali Linux and Microsoft PowerShell.

NOTE Mile2 is: ACCREDITED by the NSA CNSS 4011-4016 MAPPED to NIST / Homeland Security NICCS’s Cyber Security Workforce Framework APPROVED on the FBI Cyber Security Certification Requirement list (Tier 1-3)

4. Offensive Security Certified Professional

The Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) is the least known but most technical of the certification options. Offered by the for-profit Offensive Security, it is advertised as the only completely hands-on certification program. Offensive Security designed the program for technical professionals “to prove they have a clear, practical understanding of the penetration testing process and lifecycle.”

Before considering the OCSP certification, understand that the coursework requires a solid technical understanding of networking protocols, software development, and systems internals, specifically Kali Linux, an open-source project maintained by Offensive Security. Most students enrolled in this training program will take the course online; classroom training is only offered in Las Vegas.

The OCSP exam is conducted on a virtual network with varying configurations. The test-taker is tasked with researching the network, identifying vulnerabilities, and hacking into the system to gain administrative access within 24 hours. At the end of the 24 hours, the Offensive Security certification committee must receive a comprehensive penetration test report for review. They will review the findings in the report and determine whether to grant the certification.

Ethical Hacking Jobs

Most companies purchase the services of cybersecurity firms that specialize in security compliance and testing. These companies hire professionals that will investigate the root cause of the breach, perform penetration testing, deliver a report of their findings and provide recommended mitigations. Cybersecurity firms accumulate talent and market themselves to the industry.

Many of these cybersecurity service firms are small companies started by entrepreneurs. The advantage of working for a small company is that they can be more ambitious in the type of work they accept. Those interested in working for these companies can look at job sites like Naukri, Monster, and LinkedIn.

Another avenue for finding jobs as an ethical hacker is to work with firms that contract to the federal government. Ever since the data breach from the Office of Personnel Management, executive branch agencies have been mandated to conduct independent security assessments of their systems. Contractors, primarily in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, are having a difficult time finding and hiring qualified ethical hackers.

When looking through job sites, the listings for the Washington, DC area reads like a roll call of the most high-profile government contractors. If your preference is to work for one of these large contractors, ethical hacker or penetration testing jobs are almost always available at Information Technologies sectors Wipro, IBM, TCS, HCL and many other sectors like banking, finance, industrial as well.

When looking for cybersecurity jobs that are associated with the government, you may require active security clearances or the ability to qualify for a clearance. Government security clearances require employees to be citizens of India and undergo background checks. Certified ethical hackers looking to fulfill their career in public service can work directly for the government. Agencies like:

• DeitY – Department of Electronics and Information Technology and under which there is ICERT (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team)
• IB – Intelligence Bureau, is the internal intelligence agency of India.
• DoT – Department of Telecom and the Department of Defense all use ethical hackers for various tasks.
• NTRO – National Technical Research Organisation is the premium cryptography and technical organization in the country.
• DRDO – Defence Research and Development Organisation, is the state of the art computer security and research programmes.

If working for the government is not a priority, look at large network service providers like Amazon Web Services and other ISPs. With network access as their main business, cloud and other services providers have their own in-house ethical hackers to help maintain security.

Freelancing as an Ethical Hacker

Ethical hackers who want to set their own schedule or work on a variety of projects may decide to be freelancers. As freelancers, ethical hackers will have to hustle their own contracts, support their own business, and manage their own benefits—and will have the flexibility to work when and where they want.

Finding contract work has become easier with social networking sites for professionals looking for people who need their services. Two sites like Neighborhood Hacker and the Ethical Hacker Search Engine allow ethical hackers with certifications to advertise their services—and those looking for their services to find a professional. Both sites are responsive as brokers and help manage disputes between ethical hackers and clients.

More general sites for independent freelance consultants also are good sources for finding clients. Two of the top sites for finding this are UpWork and Freelancer.com. These sites combine job listings with project management tools for both the client and the ethical hacker to manage the relationship.