What is Ethical Hacking?

What is Ethical Hacking? The ethical hacking stands in a world where threats are looming larger by day. It is also called “penetration testing” or “white-hat”-hacking, it is the legal penetration into computers, and devices to test the organization’s defenses.

Ethical hackers exploit the same techniques and tools a malevolent-hacker uses, but with this vital difference: they have the permission of the system owner to detect security flaws. Suffering from security vulnerability identification and remediation helps ethical hackers to safeguard sensitive data and ensure system integrity.

Benefits of Ethical Hacking

It is quite certain that ethical hacking appears to confer considerable privileges upon an organization worthy of highlighting with the following keywords:

Security Enhancement

Ethical hacking identifies the loop-holes in the system and mitigates the security vulnerabilities before they can be manipulated by malicious hackers, thus ensuring protection of consent and integrity of the data.

Risk Management

Ethical hackers develop a risk profile and analyze the impact of a security breach so that organizations can prioritize the necessary security measures with an effective allocation of resources.

Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

Ethical hacking assures organizations that they remain compliant with the regulatory bodies and industry standards related to data protection and cybersecurity.

Money-Saving

Data breaches and cyber-attack have numerous hazards with collateral damage – this could be the infrastructural loss recovering, legal fees, and the character may be adversely affected.

Preserving Reputation

A proper security posture guards an organization’s reputation and credibility with customers, partners, and stakeholders.

Competitive Benefits

High investment in ethical hacking and cybersecurity gives the organization a competitive advantage worth mentioning for its dedication to security and data protection.

The Importance of Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking is so important for some reasons:

Protect Sensitive Data

Ethical hackers seek out and fix vulnerabilities present in a system to avert data breaches involving personal and financial information.

Strengthening Security

Ethical hacking strengthens the security of an organization and hardens it against possible attacks.

Trust Building

Organizations willing to invest in ethical hacking would be putting their money where their mouth is regarding cybersecurity, and this builds gratitude among their customers, partners, and stakeholders.

Compliance

Ethical hacking assists organizations in meeting regulatory and industry standards that could save them from legal and financial consequences.

To conclude, ethical hacking is needed in the cyber world. It involves hacking techniques for positive purposes, namely protecting the systems, data, or even people from bad attack actors. Cyber threats would mutate constantly, and this is where ethical hackers protect our cyber world.

Ethical Hacking vs Malicious Hacking

After all, it is crucial to define what is the difference between ethical hacking and malicious hacking:

Ethical Hackers (White Hats)	They use their skills by permission to take pre-emptive measures against cyber threats.
Malicious Hackers (Black Hats)	They take advantage of those vulnerabilities for illegal wrongdoing: stealing data, spreading viruses, or tipping services.
Gray Hat Hackers	Comprising the rest, these guys might exploit weaknesses with no malicious intent but without permission. Such indiscretion can be legally and ethically ambiguous.

How to Become CEH? (Certified Ethical Hacker)

Obtaining a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification makes a world of difference to your career growth in cybersecurity. There is a step-by-step guide for you to obey to make sure you acquire the certification

Step 1: Know the requirements.

Before applying for the CEH certification, an individual needs to know what are the requirements needed to be completed. The person should have, at least, a basic understanding of networking and security concepts. But there are no formal prerequisites to getting certified. An IT or cybersecurity background may help.

Step 2: Understand the CEH Exam

The CEH exam tests different aspects of one’s ethical hacking skills and knowledge – it includes network security, malware analysis, penetration testing, and so on. You should familiarize yourself with what the exam entails, including its entire format.

Step 3: Enroll in an Official CEH Training Course

In fact, it is very much recommended to enroll in an official CEH training program. It encompasses all these comprehensive training programs offered by the EC-Council. Most of these training courses also include hands-on labs or real-life situations to provide you with an experience as much as possible.

Step 4: Make Use of Recommended Study Materials

Apart from the training course attended, recommended study materials should also be incorporated in order to bolster what one has learned. This may include textbooks, online tutorials, and practice exams. The other source of study materials is the EC-Council

Step 5: Take Practice Exams

Take practice tests to prepare yourself for the real test. Practice tests help to assess how prepared you are and where more preparation will be needed to do better. Practice tests are always close to the actual test environment; therefore, they will help you get comfortable with the format and types on questions

Step 6: Gain Hands-On Experience

Invaluable hands-on experience strengthens one’s chances of successfully becoming an ethical hacker. Engage yourself in lab sessions, participate in capture-the-flag (CTF) competitions, and do some real-life projects to sharpen your skills.

Step 7: Register and Sit for the CEH Exam

Once sure about preparation, register for the CEH exam. The exam comprises multiple-choice questions; it will test one’s practical knowledge and skills. The passing percentage to score is at least 70%.

Step 8: Maintain the credential

Your CEH certification will require you to be in constant integration with the recent happenings in the field of cybersecurity and continue with education. The CEH also presents Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for maintaining the certification.

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