Careers in Cybersecurity or Ethical Hacking: Education and Job Prospects
There has been an increase in the demand for professionals in cybersecurity since threats started being levelled on organizations of every size. There are several entries points to this career, with some starting right after college while others transition into it from other IT roles. Whichever path you choose, the basics in education are the same.
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Entry Level Jobs for New Professionals
The entry-level jobs available in this field include IT technician, Network Engineering, Information Security Analysis, and System Administration. With knowledge in either of these fields, you can transition to ethical hacking as you will know the system. And to enhance your knowledge while in college, you need to know that EduBirdie is the best option among dissertation writing services and other academic assignments. Cybersecurity is not an easy field to pursue if you want to do your best in college and get placed in a top company, so you need to do your best when doing assignments. Whether it’s essays, thesis, dissertations or term papers, you can trust the professional writers to do the job for you and deliver the level of work that you really deserve.Â
Since cyberattacks have increased with the advancement of technology, the salaries offered to cybersecurity professionals have also significantly improved to encourage more people to get into the course. Students are pretty targeted since their skills are in such high demand.
How To Become Ethical Hacker
An ethical hacker hacks into a system to look into its weaknesses so that they can provide solutions. They have no malicious intent, and so any weaknesses found will be addressed to ensure those loopholes are sealed.
The career path of a student determined to be an ethical hacker is quite straightforward. The basics for anyone who wants to get into white-hat hacking are:
- Knowledge of Operating systems
- Networking
- Programming
- Databases
If you already have education on those and are well-versed, then you can get into hacking. The idea is to learn the fundamentals of IT before you can start looking into a system’s vulnerabilities and offering solutions.
Talking about education, we need to expound on the areas of study we mentioned above. The course to take while at school will give you a better knowledge of the workings of the systems.
For Networking, we are looking at Cisco courses which are really good at building knowledge of networks.
Programming requires that you be conversant with such languages as C++, Python/Ruby, and PHP, while in Databases, MySQL and MSSQL are some of those that you must know.
When it comes to Operating systems, most of the aspects of Linux are similar to each other. Once you learn one, you can easily make out the other. It also helps to know some areas of Windows with emphasis on the registry.
Other than what you can study online and in college, it also helps to participate in hackathons. Also, ethical hacking courses will give you a feel of what to expect on the job and how to think on your toes. This is usually information you will not learn in class.
You want to make a habit of knowing the latest hardware tools on the market. Here are some that every hacker needs to know;
· Hackerwarehouse
· SPY Goodies
· HackaDay
· Hack5
· Hacker Equipment
Salary of Ethical Hacker
An ethical hacker’s salary is typically between $45K to $129K, depending on location and level of experience. There are annual bonuses, too, ranging between $0.00 and $17,500 on top of the salary. The lesson here is to ensure that you have the right academic qualifications to get the top dollar as you advance through the field. There are several levels in the profession, and your proficiency will depend on what you choose to specialize in. The more fundamental courses you have done in the IT field, the better you will understand the system and the more money you will attract. One good thing about this field is that career growth is assured if you advance your knowledge, experience, and education.
Jobs for Hackers
There are numerous job opportunities for those studying cybersecurity because organizations have learned the hard way that they cannot merely wish this role away. Not with all the attacks happening in the field. Agencies are also making a little fortune from writing assignments for overwhelmed students in the field, and in doing so, gaining some insights into the industry. The only way career opportunities in this field can go is up, so anyone with a passion for operating systems should look into this market.
As the rate of cybercrime increases, demand for ethical hackers is growing too. A report by Cybersecurity Ventures predicted the number of job openings for ethical hackers would grow to 3.5 million vacancies by the end of 2021. Businesses need hackers to help prevent cybercrimes, create strong defences and discover vulnerabilities.
They work as ethical hackers, personal testers, security analysts, information security managers, and vulnerability testers. Other jobs for hackers are information security analyst, certified ethical hacker, and security engineer architect.
Ethical hackers with advanced education can work as cybersecurity specialists, cybersecurity security architects, or cybersecurity analysts. They may also work as security auditors, network administrators, and security administrators/auditors.
Types of hackers
In today’s fast-changing world, it is almost impossible to work without a computer. Computers are used to process transactions, store data, transfer, and process it. These processes make businesses vulnerable to attacks. Knowledge and skills requirements for all hackers are the same but some hackers work for evil while others work for good. Here are the main types of hackers.
White Hat Hackers
These are hackers recognized by law. They have trained to work for various institutions, including governments, to help protect the systems. They intrude into the systems to identify any weak points within the system architecture and fix them.Â
Black Hat Hackers
Black hat is the opposite of white hat because these hackers are fully trained but they aim to intrude systems to identify weak points and use them to make a huge profit. They are not authorized to hack into the systems and they do so illegally.Â
Gray Hat Hackers
They intrude in systems just like the other hackers but they have mixed intentions. At times they are doing it to help, while at other times, they are doing it to harm. They are mostly experimenting on systems to find weak points just for fun.Â
Red Hat Hackers
These hackers work in a similar way to the white hat hackers but they mostly specialize in the malware used by the black hat hackers. They are a ruthless type of hackers that will not stop until they destroy the systems of black hat hackers.Â
State-Sponsored Hackers
These are hackers hired by governments to spy on the systems of other governments. They help warn the government when there is danger looming from their enemies so that they get prepared.Â