What Ethical Hacking Skills Do Professionals Must Have?

What comes to your mind when you hear the term “Hacking”? The majority of people only visualise and understand their social media account login credentials are being accessed by someone without permission and people think that hacking is illegal. Right? But Hacking is not only limited to that stuff.

We must have to understand that every topic has its own pros and cons. If you do things in the right way without any harmful intention by following the ethics (moral or principal) then it is considered ethical else it will be unethical. The same thing applies to Hacking there are two types of Hacking they are ethical hacking and unethical hacking. 

In this article, we specifically talk about how to become an ethical hacker and What Ethical Hacking Skills do Professionals Must Have? So, without any ado, Let’s explore the topic.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical hacking involves an authorized attempt that is based on ethical and moral values to gain unauthorized access to a computer system,  application or data and approach to detecting vulnerabilities in an application, system, or program. 

In another word, ethical hacking is the practice of investigating the system or network to obtain the loophole (a weak point within the system) and finding the potentiality from which malicious hackers can exploit or destroy. 

Ethical hackers aim to improve the security footprint to withstand attacks better or divert them and bypass system security to potential data breach threads in a network. 

Who is an Ethical Hacker?

Ethical Hacker also known as White Hat Hacker, is an Information Security (infosec) professional hired to penetrate a computer system, network, application or other computing resources to identify and repair the potential vulnerabilities, effectively preventing exploitation by malicious hackers.

The activities done by ethical hackers without any ill intent should be considered authorized and legal work on the behalf of its owners. The job of this type of hacker is a sensitive job because if any mistake happens along the way this is marked as a loophole to the malicious hacker. Leaving the loophole means a high chance of data breach. The data breach of an organization brings a lot of bad consequences. In some cases, it might drive the organization to shut down its business. So, the ethical hacker is the most important and sensitive expert of the company.

What is a Certified Ethical Hacker?

As we earlier mentioned that Ethical Hackers is a security expert, here the majority of tech enthusiasts have one common question in their heads, Is there any authority to certify that you are an ethical hacker? Or Can we call ourselves ethical hackers without any certificate? 

Well, your intent says you are an ethical hacker without earning a certificate but when you go to work in other companies then you must have the certificate in order to prove that you are a certified hacker. 

So, What is a certified ethical hacker?

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) is the infosec expert’s qualifications obtained by demonstrating the knowledge and skill of the latest commercial-grade hacking tools, techniques, and methodologies used by the hackers and information security professionals to lawful hack an organization or a system. The certificate is called CHv11 and is provided by the EC Council (International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants) and the validity of the certificate will last for three years. 

In order to obtain this certificate, you must have sound conceptual and practical skills in the following mentioned sets of CHv11. Here are the sets of skills that make CHv11 certification unique apart from the rest:

• Mapped to NICE 2.0
• Emerging Attack Vectors
• Modern Exploit Technologies
• Hands-on Hacking challenges
• Modern Case Studies and Current Events
• Enhanced Focused on Malware Analysis
• Live, Cyber Range (No Simulations
• Great Focus on Cloud Computing and IoT (Internet of Things)
• Thousand of Hacking Techniques, Tools, and Tricks.

Skills Required to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker

Protecting the online property of a business and organization is the primary motive of an Ethical Hacker. So, it is a crucial job role for their organisation. Such manpower should have to be the super expert with sound professional skills. The skill that confidently troubleshoots the problem and the rest of the other security aspects are briefly described:

Networking Skills

Networking is the path from which data, media, and information can be transferred and received. The most critical skill that ethical hackers must have is Networking skills. It is because of the increase in the different networking technology, Ethical hackers must have a great understanding of how technological devices and the network behaves while working on data and information. In the account of Hacking, the skills included in the networking are Supernetting, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), Subnet Masking etc. 

As being an ethical hacker, Having practical skills and knowledge of Networking helps to explore the various interconnected computers in a network and the potential security threats that this might create. In the first phase, learning the ethical hacking skills mentioned below can helps you to scale your career even more effective and better:

• Networking Models
• Internet Protocols
• IP Addresses

The additional aspects of networking that you need to be familiar with, to troubleshoot the networking problem is as below:

• Routers
• Severs
• Transmission Media
• Access Point
• Shared Data 
• Network Interface Card

Computer Skills

The primary motive of Hacking is to exploit the computer system to figure out the potential threats. An ethical hacker needs to gain expertise in the operation of a computer system. Here computer operating skills are basic use like typing and all, but deep down you gradually need to develop and improve the advanced hacks of the computer. Fluent operation of computer skills can help an ethical hacking aspirant be a successful ethical hacker. 

The basic computer skills include:

• Processing Data
• Computer File Management
• Creating Presentation

And the advanced computer skills include:

• MS Office
• Email 
• Database Management
• Social Media
• Website
• Programming

Learning basic computer skills as well as advanced skills helps you a lot as an ethical hacker in the future ahead.

Linux Skills

Linux is a free and open-source CUI (Command User Interface) operating system based on the Linux Kernel. Linux is considered the most secure operating system among the others and it can be modified, and distributed to any individual commercially or non-commercially under the GNU General Public License. This is why the Linux OS is secured among others and best for Ethical Hackers. But the 100% guarantee cannot be given that this system is secure, as it also has some malware that makes it less vulnerable than any other Operating System (OS). Furthermore, the Linux Operating System does not require any kind of anti-virus software. So, for the earlier mentioned number of reasons an ethical hacker must have Linux skills for hacking.

Programming Skills

Programming skills are the most have skills in the sector of Information Technology. About all of the projects in cybersecurity need coding. The best practice for creating codes is by understanding the computational device and picking up the best compatible language. If you want to multiply the speed of your career then get expertise and enhance the programming language. 

As an Ethical Hacker, you must have to be an expert in various programming languages as mentioned below:

• Python
• SQL
• C
• C++
• Java
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Perl
• PHP

These are the most recommended languages and according to the recent trend in technology, these are the most used and mandatory programming languages in the field of Hacking.

SQL Skills

SQL stands for Standard Query Language which is responsible for communicating with a database in cross-platform web hacking. These days SQL skill is essential to become successful in the career ahead. The main purpose of SQL is to bypass the weak web application login algorithm, delete from the database and so on. The must-have SQL skills of an expert Ethical Hacker are as below:

• Able to perform SQL injection Login
• Able to understand metadata in SQL injection results
• Demonstrate writing to a file with SQL injection and uncover tools that automate attacks.
• Write the programming syntax to decrease the loading speed of the webpage using SQL injection.

Hardware Knowledge

As we all know, Hardware is the physical parts of a computer like the central processing unit (CPU), monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard, etc. which makes the computer function and shows the output to the users. In nutshell, the software is the set of instructions that can be stored and run on different hardware devices. 

Knowing the basic concepts of hardware is very crucial for the Ethical hacker because if the hacker doesn’t know the function and nature of the hardware then how could a hacker figure out the potential weak point in various operations? 

For example: If a hacker doesn’t know basic knowledge then how does he know that a  motherboard works and how does he know the USBs Data transfer? In such cases, if a malicious hacker hacks the hardware interconnected to the computer then what will be the scenario if an ethical hacker is unknown about the hardware? So for those reasons, an ethical hacker must have a basic understanding of the Hardware in order to become successful in the career ahead.

Knowledge in Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is the method of retrieving the product’s architecture, requirements, and features from the code analysis and creating a database program and gathering or collecting the knowledge from it. The main responsibility of an Ethical hacker is to maintain the speed of the system by understanding and generating the required documents for a legacy system. Reverse engineering ensures the potential mistakes in the framework like verifying that any significant security bugs or weaknesses are available or missing from the framework. 

An ethical hacker is hired to protect the system. The primary duty of the hacker is to make necessary changes to the loopholes left on the database system or program. This whole procedure helps the system and device to be stable from spyware and hackers. It won’t be possible for hackers if reverse engineering is done in a perfect way. 

So, the Ethical Hacker must have sound knowledge.

Cryptography

The term cryptography means the study and use of tricks and techniques in the presence of third parties called adversaries for securing the communication between two parties. It aims to create and analyze protocols that prevent the exchange of information between two parties by malicious third parties. 

Cryptography includes translating a standard text/message as normal plain text to a non-readable type known as ciphertext throughout the permission.

Database Skills

The database is a big name in the field of Information Technology as well as Infosec. Database Management System (DBMS) is the process of developing and managing the data in a certain directory called the databases. Among the numerous database systems the shortlisted system according to the value and security vulnerabilities are as below:

• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• Oracle

If unauthorized access occurs in the database system of the business, there will be a high chance of a data breach. As we’ve mentioned earlier, a data breach for the company is equivalent to loss. so, an ethical hacker must have to learn Database skills to boost their career.

Problem Solving Skills

Not only the technical skill but the soft skills of a professional also matters. Problem-solving skills drive the security of a system even more strongly. An ethical hacker must have to be a creative problem solver because the ethical hacker needs to analyze the intent of the malicious hacker and find an appropriate solution to the root of a problem. 

The collaboration of Problem-solving skills and analytical skills are essential qualities that an ethical hacker is required to learn new approaches to ensure that any security violations are carefully reviewed or not.

Conclusion

Now you know the great career prospects of Ethical Hacking Skills do Professionals Must Have, you may want to begin your Ethical Hacking journey. Softwarica College provides the best Cybersecurity degree in Nepal. Collaborated with Coventry University, UK, Softwarica offers students underpinning technical skills with a high-quality teaching methodology. Students are facilitated with well-equipped computer labs and a supportive guide. We guide our students all the way through the program.