Ever since the internet has taken its place, data breaches have also grown simultaneously. According to a  2019 data breach investigations report by Verizon, there were 2013 confirmed data breaches. A data breach refers to an accident in which hackers take away sensitive or confidential information without the authorization. Not only does it causes the loss of data, but the reputation and financial loss also. The popular data breaches are that of Facebook, First American, Aadhar, Canva, etc. First American exposed 885 user’s million records which included their bank account records, transactions, etc. Canva impacted accounts of 137 million users while Marriott/ Starwood exposed accounts of 500 million guests.

From these incidents, you can conclude how important it is to secure the data. Well, companies tackle these issues by investing more in cyber security and hiring ethical hackers. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification is a credential that many companies rely on while finding the right candidate for the ethical hacking role. Professionals seeking CEH training in Noida should definitely check out this article and understand what options are best for them.

Need for ethical hacking

When computers and networks are exposed to threats from hackers, viruses, malicious software, etc, they may cause prolonged damage. So to protect the computer systems, organizations require ethical hackers. With the help of ethical hacking, the organizations aim at removing the possible threats and protect them in the near future.

Ethical hacking comprises of techniques which are aimed at finding out possible threats across networks and computer systems and formulation of strategies to solve it. Usually, hackers are people who gain unauthorized access, thereby causing damage. So ethical hacking is a process where organizations employ professionals in order to hack their systems in an ethical way. It’s a proactive approach in finding out threats before the hackers access the systems. The ethical hacker is responsible for reporting all the threats found to the management. Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing.

According to Payscale, The average salary is rupees 41,60,24 for an entry-level employee, which increases with experience depending upon your employer, education, skills, etc. The roles that companies employ are:

•  Ethical hacker
•  Certified ethical hacker
•  Security analyst
•  Security consultant
•  Information security manager
•  Network security management
•  Computer security

Courses in ethical hacking

Here are some of the best courses which ethical hacking aspirants can consider taking.

1. Simplilearn

The course that Simplilearn offers is CEH(v10)-Certified Ethical hacking Course. It will help you learn the techniques of penetration testing and advanced network packet analysis that will enhance your skill-set in network security. The course is taught by certified industry professionals. The topics covered are trojans, backdoors, firewalls, advanced hacking concepts, network analysis, cloud computing, IoT hacking, cryptography, etc. The course duration is of 40 hours and it consists of 20 modules. The certification is accredited by EC-Council. It provides access to Ilabs to practice testing. The ethical hacking tools are also covered in the course which helps you automate the tasks. Therefore, it will help you dig deeper into the concepts and will help you in skilling yourself in these practices.

2. Udemy

You can take these popular courses from Udemy related to ethical hacking

• Learn ethical hacking from scratch

The course covers the basics of ethical hacking and penetration testing. It then moves towards the advanced level. It will help you practice tools such as Metasploit, air track, SQLmap, etc. You will also learn the essential software required for penetration testing. The exploitation strategies of websites, servers, clients, etc. are also covered. Thereafter, you will be taught ways in which we can secure these systems from exploitation. Some of the basic IT concepts are the prerequisites to learn this course. The course duration is of 14.5 hours.

• The complete ethical hacking course: Beginner to Advanced

This course also introduces you to the concepts of ethical hacking and penetration testing. The other topics covered are: installing VirtualBox, creating a virtual environment, Linux Terminal, Virtual Private Networks(VPN), wifi hacking using kali Linux, etc. the course duration is 24.5 hours.

3. Edx

The course that Edx offers is “Cybersecurity basics: A hands-on approach” from the University of Washington. This course will help you build strong foundational skills of cyberattacks, viruses, and ways to combat them. There is another course that Edx offers in cybersecurity is the professional program which will help you learn all the aspects of cybersecurity such as detecting threats, risk management, investigative tools. It will also introduce you to the common approaches used by hackers, and the ways in which users can protect their systems and networks. The duration is of 6 weeks.

4. Coursera

Coursera offers the course named “hacking and patching” by the University of Colorado. This course helps you identify the web apps and wifi passwords that are vulnerable to threats. It also introduces you to some penetration testing techniques to make the systems and networks risk-free. The course duration is approximately 10 hours. This course is a part of the “Fundamentals of computer network security specialization”. You can take the course individually or take up the specialization which consists of 4 courses.

Conclusion

Keeping in mind the data breaches that have taken place, it is important for every organization to secure their networks and computer systems. Organizations must take an important step regarding the securitization. Ethical hacking will be useful to find out the vulnerabilities and then forming preventive measures to control the threats. So, why not take up a course in ethical hacking. Organizations, specially I.T firms look for these professionals. Students or professionals, who want to work in the cybersecurity domain should learn ethical hacking.