Hacking is usually viewed as a criminal activity, and most people wouldn’t imagine that there are legal pathways to utilize hacking as a skill. However, white-hat hacking does exist, and these are the ways you can start your career hacking. Below in this article, we will cover the Start A Career As An Ethical Hacker.
What Is Ethical Hacking?
It refers to intentionally hacking into a computer system (with permission, of course) to assess the existing security level. Ethical hackers are employed by governments, large corporations, banks, and many more.
Before you start adding “ethical hacker” on your resume and researching how to add promotions to your LinkedIn profile, let’s get into everything required to start your career as an ethical hacker.
Skills To Develop
As with any job, there are some skill requirements. A bachelor’s degree in IT will provide you with the required knowledge base. However, many ethical hackers are self-taught, and that’s okay as well. It would be best to focus on learning operating systems, databases, network operation, and programming (coding included).
Cryptography
The basis of all encryption, whether digital or not, is cryptography. It is defined as the art of cracking codes, but it is much more extensive in computing. Focus on learning how to encrypt and decrypt data because, ultimately, that is what your job will be.
Operating Systems: Linux
Linux kernel is the basis of most, if not all, hacking systems. Read books on Linux and try to gain an in-depth knowledge of the OS. Windows is not Linux-based, and neither is iOS. Study them as well, and get into the finer details with Windows (such as Windows Registry)
How To Start Your Career
Even with all the knowledge in the world, your career will only start if you take part in professional networking. Try to work part-time (even entry-level jobs will do) for different companies and the government.
Slowly but surely, you should be building a reputation for yourself along with your skills. People will come to view you as a white-hat hacker if you advertise yourself as such. Part of the networking might be to interact with other professionals on social media or join hacking conferences (international) if you can.
You may also consider taking free or recognized ethical hacking courses to increase your certified qualification level and garner trust among your potential clients or future employers.
Final Advice
The final and most important piece of advice I will give you: Do not cross the line into criminal activity. If you stay legal, you guarantee no one will ever doubt your motives. Once you cross that line, there’s no looking back, so keep that in mind. You will probably get many offers luring you to the dark side, and you must stick to your principles.
Ethical hacking is a challenging field to get into, but if you have the skills and knowledge base, take it into consideration. The career prospects are high, and there is a noticeably increased demand for this profession in today’s climate.
Black-hat hackers are continuously evolving, and as such, governments, enterprises, and even small businesses are in desperate need of their security systems to evolve accordingly.
