If you are looking for a promising career path in the IT industry, network security is the right domain for you. With more and more firms going cloud, the demand for ethical hackers has raised exponentially. The focus has been shifted to various hacking attacks on cloud computing platforms.

Previously, most of the hacking was learned in bedrooms, and the skills were developed by personnel on their own. The word ‘hacker’ was referred to as a skilled programmer who was an expert in machine code and computer operating systems. Fortunately, many certifications have been offered by authentic sources now and the opportunity to master the skills required in this profession has persuaded many programmers to enter this in-demand field. Today, a ‘hacker’ is a person who accepts hacking as his/her choice and lifestyle. It is a practice of changing the features of a network to achieve a goal different from the creator’s original objective.

Who is an Ethical Hacker?

Although negative connotations were attached to the term ‘hacking’, the need is to fully understand the role of an ethical hacker.

So, are these hackers good or bad guys? They are the ones who wear a white hat and are good guys in the hacking world. Ethical hackers use their advanced computer knowledge for identifying weaknesses in network security. They protect organizations from malicious attacks and data security breaches.

Skills needed for Ethical Hacking:

Here are the most in-demand skills required for an ethical hacker.

Footprinting:

Footprinting is the process of finding ways to enter into the target system by gathering extensive information about it. The hacker spends most of the time to create a profile of the target firm. He gathers information about the network, people, the host, the operating system in use, IP addresses, records, email id of employees, DNS information and phone numbers to plan their attacks

Reconnaissance

In network security, reconnaissance is a type of attack in which the attacker intrudes into the target system to collect information relevant to vulnerabilities. The hacker can use port scanning software to discover any vulnerable ports.

The word reconnaissance comes from the military, where a mission into the enemy territory to gain information is named as reconnaissance. In the security system context, it is the initial step to proceed to an information breach attack.

Network Scanning

Network scanning concludes the information about ports, networks, and protocols. Ethical hackers scan the target system to gain knowledge of open ports and other vulnerabilities. Port scans are run on the active IPs after using the ping command. This phase enters you into the real feel of hacking. 

Enumeration

After scanning phase, in which the hacker collects information regarding ports, services, and targets, the enumeration phase is started. Now the hacker makes active connections to the target system and gathers detailed information making use of queries etc.

Information enumerated by the hacker includes details of users and groups, hostnames, routing tables, DNS details, networks and shared paths and DNS details.

Session Hijacking

The attacker exploits an existing session between a user and the host machine. This is done by stealing the valid session id to enter the system and snoop data. This validates the intruder to access any resource like FTP or web server or telnet session. He can act as an authorized user or he can just sit back and observe the communication. The hacker takes advantage of the fact that the data transfer is not validated each time it is transferred as long as the session continues. He keeps on stealing the data, identities and may corrupt the data. Moreover, traffic may be sniffed, and the transactions can be recorded.

Hacking Web applications

Web hacking is the exploitation of programs using HTTP. This is done by tampering the URI or tampering the HTTP elements that are not in URI. Methods employed to hack web applications are Cross-Site Scripting, SQL Injection attacks, Cross-Site Request Forgeries (CSRF), etc.

An expert ethical hacker must definitely have the skill to test web applications for vulnerabilities.

IoT Hacking

The IT industry has witnessed IoT as the latest trend, but each device adds a new vulnerability to your system. As an expert ethical hacker you should be having the knowledge of different communication models and the types of threats IoT devices impose.

The skills mentioned above are specific to Ethical hacking, but you need to have much more knowledge and other skills too if you want to make a mark as a security professional. These skills include:

• Hardware and operating system fundamentals
• Networking Fundamentals
• Security Fundamentals
• Python Programming
• CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst
• CompTIA PenTest+

Cyber Security boot camps are offered by authentic institutes to provide you with the opportunity to learn all the necessary skills that are in demand on the cybersecurity landscape. 

A career path as Ethical Hacker

Growth in the cybersecurity job market is recorded to be at a record rate of 32% annually (Source: US. BLS). Vacancies of ethical hackers have increased tremendously thus creating a gap in the job market. Moreover, the professionals available in the market don’t have the right blend of skills that are in demand for the job title. Enrolling in cybersecurity programs can prepare you for the renowned industry certifications such as CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) and pave your way to fortune 500 companies. Job titles offered after completion of the course are:

• Cybersecurity Analyst
• Security Engineer
• Systems Administrator
• Penetration Tester
• IT Security Engineer
• Security Consultant

Payscale.com has revealed the range of median salary for different job titles in the cybersecurity sector as $72,000 to $145,000.

So Gear up for an exciting career choice as an ethical hacker.

Summary:

With more and more systems getting connected to networks, the threat of security breaches has risen exponentially. This creates a gap for security professionals in the job market. You can work as an Ethical hacker with the responsibility to identify vulnerabilities in networks of organizations.

Cybersecurity these days requires much more advanced skills as more organizations are moving to cloud. If you are thinking of a promising career move, cybersecurity can prove to be the right choice for you.