Skills Required To Become an Ethical Hacker

Ethical Hacking is an authorized practice in which professionals break into the systems and network to identify threats and vulnerabilities that a malicious attacker may find and exploit to take down the entire security architecture. Ethical Hacking is also called Penetration Testing. It intends to improve the network or systems’ security by fixing the vulnerabilities detected during testing. Ethical hackers use the same methodologies and tools used by malicious hackers. However, they are authorized to use these tools to improve security posture and protect the systems from malicious attackers.

To become an ethical hacker, you require some mandatory skills that are listed mentioned below:

1) Networking Skills: Networking skills are the essential skills required to become an ethical hacker. In a computer network, a set of computer systems are connected so that they can share information. There are many types of networks like LAN (Local Area Networks), MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks), and WAN (Wide Area Networks) that can be used for various purposes. An ethical hacker must be aware of different network topologies such as Star topology, Bus topology, Ring topology, and Mesh topology. Networking skills are essential for ethical hackers because they identify and fix weaknesses and breaches in the network. To learn computer networking, you can refer to our CCNA course.

2) Penetration Testing Skills: Ethical hackers should have knowledge of penetration testing that helps to identify vulnerabilities in the system. Penetration testing allows ethical hackers to mitigate any weaknesses before an actual attack occurs. The penetration testing process involves five steps: reconnaissance, scanning, gaining access, maintaining access, and analysis using various tools, such as Nmap, Metasploit, Wireshark, and Hashcat. To learn Penetration Testing, you can refer to our Advanced Penetration Testing course.

3) Programming Skills: Programming skills are a way to communicate with computer systems and provide instructions to perform an action called “code.” Computer programmers write these codes to perform a specific task. Computer programming skills combine technical and logical elements. We can write the code in many programming languages like C, C++, JAVA, PYTHON, C#, .NET, JAVASCRIPT, HTML, PHP. An ethical hacker should know these programming languages because there can be a vulnerability or error in the code.

4) Basic Hardware Skills: An Ethical hacker should have a basic understanding of hardware because it can cause a security breach. An ethical hacker should know how machines work, how the motherboard works, how USBs transfer data, or how CMOS or BIOS work together.

5) Cryptography Skills: Cryptography skills are a must for an ethical hacker. Cryptography is a combination of keys (factors) and algorithms (logic) used for data security. It includes different methods and technologies to secure data, such as encryption, decryption, hashing, digital signature, etc. In cryptography, we use two types of encryption techniques: Symmetric and Asymmetric. In the Symmetric technique, both sender and receiver use the same key for encryption and decryption, but in asymmetric, both use different keys. To learn the basic concept of cryptography, refer to our CEH v11 Certification Training course.

6) Database Skills: DBMS is a technique used for creating and managing databases. Most hackers target databases to steal some sensitive information. An ethical hacker should know how to fix the vulnerabilities and security threats of different databases such as SQL, MySQL, or Oracle. DBMS skills enable you to perform all the necessary operations on a database like creating, reading, updating, and deleting. The understanding of DBMS will help you to examine systems for data integrity.

7) Social Engineering: Social engineering is a process of convincing people to disclose confidential information. It depends on the fact that people are unaware of their valuable information and are careless about protecting it. Before performing a social engineering attack, an attacker gathers information about the target organization from various resources such as its official website, where employees’ IDs, names, and email addresses are mentioned. After information gathering, the attacker executes social engineering attacks using different approaches like piggybacking and reverse social engineering.

8) Wireless Technologies: A wireless network is a boundless data communication system that uses radiofrequency technology to communicate with devices and obtain data. It utilizes electromagnetic waves to interconnect two different points without establishing any physical connection between them. An attacker can intercept between these points to perform any malicious activity. This is why a basic knowledge of wireless technologies is required for an ethical hacker.

9) Web Applications: Web applications are an integral component of online businesses. Everyone connected via the internet uses web applications for various purposes, including online shopping, email, chat, and social networking. Web applications are becoming vulnerable to more sophisticated attack vectors. Web development knowledge enables ethical hackers to understand web attacks and know web application hacking methodologies used by cybercriminals. An ethical hacker can use these methodologies to assess their organization’s security against web application attacks.

10) Problem Solving skill: Ethical Hacking is an exciting career in which you will come across new challenges regularly. Ethical hackers must possess strong analytical and proactive problem-solving skills to overcome these challenges. The cyber threat landscape is continuously evolving. Therefore, they must be excited to learn new technologies and be aware of the recently uncovered vulnerabilities.

How to become a Certified Ethical Hacker:

Infosec Train is an online IT security training provider with a team of highly skilled experts to offer you the best guidance. Here, you will get everything that you need to get through the Ethical hacking certification exam, such as:

• Handwritten In-batch Notes
• Official Courseware Material
• Assessment Links
• Reference Guide
• Practice Questions

So, visit the following link to enroll now and step ahead in your career as a Certified Ethical Hacker.

AUTHOR
Aakanksha Tyagi ( )
Infosec Train

“ Aakanksha Tyagi is pursuing her Master's degree in Information Security and Management. She works with full dedication and enjoys working on Information Security blogs. Currently, Aakanksha is working as a content writer in Infosec Train. “