Certified Ethical Hacker: Your Gateway To A Thriving Cybersecurity Career

It is crucial to acknowledge that the rate of cybercrime is constantly increasing. By 2023, the worldwide cybercrime annual cost will reach around $8 trillion. Moreover, around 80% of the cyber crimes reported were phishing attacks in the technology sector. This is where ethical hackers enter as saviors, and there is no doubt that the requirement for this skill will be on the rise in the upcoming days. 

Solution?

A skilled, professional, certified ethical hacker who mimics the mind of a cybercriminal by implementing the required tools and knowledge. However, they work in a legal manner and mitigate these cyber threat scenarios.

What is a Certified Ethical Hacker?

The certified ethical hacker is a professional title given to a person who has acquired a qualification that lets them carry out protective services for companies. As per their need, ethical hackers penetrate the computer systems of a company with their permission, with the intention to determine the presence of any vulnerabilities. Moreover, an ethical hacker also follows all the corrective measures and precautions required to protect the system against cyber crimes that might occur in the future.

By obtaining a CEH qualification, individuals can get certified in a network security discipline. Hence, individuals who clear the CEH examination get awarded with the appropriate designation and title of a Certified Ethical Hacker. Individuals can achieve the certification by either completing the proper training courses offered by training centers or via self-study.

Students choosing a self-study option to clear a CEH examination must present their qualifications with a minimum of 2 years of practical work experience in information security. However, if a candidate’s working experience is lacking, they must provide a detailed educational background for a review.

Boost your Cybersecurity Career

Cybersecurity is a rewarding field, offering several opportunities for innovation and growth. However, to build a successful cybersecurity career, individuals require resilience, adoption, and, most importantly, constant learning. If you are seeking to plan a long-term cybersecurity career, you need to build some crucial skills to outshine your competitors in the industry. Some of the skills that you must master to become a successful cybersecurity professional are listed below:

1. Keen Learning

To stay competitive in the ever-evolving cybersecurity field, it is crucial to build keen learning skills that keep you updated with the latest technologies, trends and best practices. Experimentation, research, curiosity, and feedback are some of the most essential skills for keen learning. 

Being eager and curious to study new concepts helps explore new possibilities. Moreover, in-depth research from reliable resources, such as reports, experts, articles, and books, also proves to be beneficial. Experimentation lets you validate, test and practise your ideas. Lastly, giving and receiving valuable feedback from others helps you learn effectively.

2. Technical Skills

In the absence of technical skills, it might be challenging for you to become a successful cybersecurity professional. Hence, skills, including networking, penetration, testing, programming, and malware analysis, are crucial. The skills help you understand the way in which systems function, how they are exploited, and how you can protect them. 

You must also be familiar with frameworks, standards, and tools implemented in cybersecurity, such as antivirus software, firewalls, encryption software, OWASP, and NIST. To update and acquire the skills, you must invest in certification, practice and education. You can also get information from podcasts, courses, communities, and blogs, as well as from sharing cyber security, resources, and knowledge.

3. Business Skills 

Cybersecurity is not only a technical field but also a business sector that affects the strategies, operations, and goals of organisations. Hence, it is crucial to build business skills that will help you align your cybersecurity efforts with stakeholders’ expectations and requirements. 

Business acumen is crucial to understanding the way businesses work, their objectives and their measure of success. Moreover, risk management is crucial to assess, prioritise and mitigate the effects of cyber security threats on the business. Learning project management helps you plan, monitor and execute cybersecurity projects within the budget, timeline and scope of the business. Additionally, you must be aware of all the regulations, laws, and standards that apply to cybersecurity in your region and industry to follow compliance.

4. Soft Skills

Even though technical skills are the most crucial ones for success in a cybersecurity career, in the absence of soft skills such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving, you may face challenges in the future. Moreover, inheriting certain skills such as teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and leadership are also very essential. 

Critical thinking lets you analyze situations and recognize the risks. Creativity lets you show and experiment with new ideas and anticipate the actions of the attackers. Communication includes expressing yourself persuasively and clearly in both written and verbal forms. Teamwork includes working in collaboration with others towards a common goal. Leadership lets you inspire others, take responsibility and be accountable for your actions.

Conclusion

To be a certified ethical hacker in the field of cyber security, it is important to have an in-depth understanding, practicality and knowledge of technical skills. A certified cyber security hacker must read the minds of the attackers to acknowledge the potential cyber security attacks and protect the valuable assets and information of the organisation they are working for.