Things to know about Ethical Hacking

Today, Businesses and government-related organizations that are serious about their network security. They hire ethical hackers and penetration testers to help probe and improve their networks, applications, and other computer systems with the ultimate goal of preventing data theft and fraud. You might even consider military service. The military offers many IT opportunities. Military service also looks good to employers that require security clearances. If you want to get into the IT security world as a white hat you must be competent in the following areas: Networking, Programming, Databases.

An ethical hacker is a computer and networking expert who systematically attempts to penetrate a computer system or network on behalf of its owners for the purpose of finding security vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could potentially exploit. For a hacker, networking know-how is vital; but make sure that you gain experience in related areas as well. Discover and play with Unix/Linux commands and distributions. Make sure you also learn some programming--maybe C, LISP, Python, Perl, or Java. And spend some time with databases such as SQL.

Hacking isn't all technical. It also requires soft skills. Ethical hackers need a strong work ethic, communications skills and very good problem-solving, the ability to say motivated and dedicated, and even some talent for manipulation.

It's important never to engage in "black hat" hacking--that is, intruding or attacking anyone's network without their full permission. Engaging in illegal activities, even if it doesn't lead to a conviction, will likely kill your ethical hacking career. Many of the available jobs are with government-related organizations and require security clearances and polygraph testing. Even regular companies will perform at least a basic background check.

Ethical hacking course is provided by EC council worldwide. There is no prerequisites for CEH(Certified ethical hacker) course, however knowledge of Server and Network Components would be beneficial. The prior knowledge of systems will helps you to hack them. The course of study covers creating Trojan horses, backdoors, viruses, and worms. It also covers denial of service (DoS) attacks, SQL injection, buffer overflow, session hijacking, and system hacking. You'll discover how to hijack Web servers and Web applications. You'll also find out how to scan and sniff networks, crack wireless encryption, and evade IDSs, firewalls, and honeypots.