What is Ethical Hacking?
Ethical Hacking, also known as White Hat Hacking, is the term used to describe hacking which is performed by a certified ethical hacking company or an individual to identify possible threats or vulnerabilities in the security of a system that could be used or exploited by illegal hackers, also known as Black Hat Hackers.
The ethical hacking course is extremely popular among IT Professionals and has got a myriad of benefits or advantages associated with it. One must aim for getting the required training from authorized training classes for getting better insights into the subject. If you are looking forward to becoming a certified ethical hacker you must know the pros of being one.
Pros of Becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker
Verification of your Skills
Without certification, even if you have skills, there is no authority for the verification of the same. So, even if you have the desired knowledge and the required skill set, without certification, they are of no use to you. Majority of the IT departments in various organizations have made certification for ethical hacking mandatory for all kinds of security-related posts.
So, it is better if you learn more about ethical hacking by attending training classes, like by EC Council, and get certified for the same so as to get the much-needed recognition of your skills. Moreover, certified ethical hacking professionals earn up to 40 percent more than their non-certified peers.
Become a better Software Developer or Programmer
The knowledge of hacking can be employed in almost any field of information technology. For instance, if you are a software developer, you can develop your software and test it for any kinds of bugs, errors or security vulnerabilities yourself only by hacking it.
This way you are actually devising a much better software product for the market. Being certified for ethical hacking allows you to think like a hacker and have better insight into the mind of a hacker. Hence, you can develop a much secure product than your competitors. Undoubtedly, organizations will go for well-secured software, without any loopholes in the code.
Get Complete Knowledge of Real Hacking Tools and Advanced Hacking Concepts
You might have built your own knowledge or experience by trying out a hacking tool, just out of curiosity. But it is highly unlikely that you have the needed in-depth knowledge and understanding of the usage of these tools.
Here certification for ethical hacking comes into play. By undergoing certification for ethical hacking you actually get to know and understand the working of a variety of ethical hacking tools. Moreover, you will get to know the ways hackers use these tools to intrude into your systems.
You might have heard of the terms like Trojans, viruses, backdoors etc. You might even have self-trained yourself onto them. But do you have fine in-depth knowledge of these web-based threats and other malicious web elements? There is no better way to learn completely about these security threats other than going for professional ethical hacking certification.
The knowledge of ethical hacking is not just limited to PCs or desktops. You even get to know about hacking mobile devices and smartphones.
This plethora of knowledge will allow you to secure your networks, software and other applications in a much better fashion.
Opens Up Many Career Opportunities for you
By getting ethical hacking certified you, actually, are opening a lot of career opportunities with about 40 percent higher pay scale as compared to normal IT security pay rates.
You can go for intrusion analyst, security manager, computer network defense (CND) analyst and many other associated posts.
You Acquire the Ability to Go Beyond the Numbers
Anyone can use a particular tool and run a scan on a system to identify what needs to be fixed and where exactly the security loopholes in the network are. But, there is absolutely no use of this information if you don’t have knowledge of its relationship to the business.
By acquiring the certification for ethical hacking you, actually, allow your mindset to widen as you get the ability to put back results from a system scan into the context of the business.
With ethical hacking certification, you will know the answers to the following questions which are really important from business point-of-view.
Which loopholes are truly security threats?
How can the hacker access these loopholes and gain entry into the system?
How deep can a hacker gain entry into the system by exploiting these loopholes?
Out of all loopholes and security fixes which hole should be patched first and which security fix should be employed first?
By having the ability for such kind of deep research, you become really valuable for any organization which you are working for.
Conclusion
So, these were some of the major advantages that acquiring a professional ethical hacking certification has. One must remember that there is a very small amount of difference between legal hacking and illegal hacking. You must use your skills in a wise and legitimate way and never employ or utilize your knowledge and skills in a way that you should not.
Also, one must understand that your job is not over at just getting a certification for ethical hacking once. Daily new web-based threats and codes are written. One-time certification will help you to gain knowledge of the then current industry standard and protocols. But how will you learn about the new threats emerging and new hacking tools and techniques being devised? The answer to this question is re-certification. One must aim for re-certification also in order to keep up with the new and advanced hacking concepts.
Hence, you are wrong if you think that just getting a certification once is enough. Instead, learning about ethical hacking is a never-ending path. You must be equipped with deep knowledge of all the latest and current hacking tools and concepts in order to be a professional ethical hacker.