How to Become a White Hat Hacker from Scratch?

IT security expenditure is expected to grow tenfold in 10 years. Small to huge organizations these days are spending on IT security practices to avoid data breaches. Currently, the world is in great shortage of white hat hackers who could meet the organization’s security needs and this is the reason why white hat hacking is considered one of the most prestigious and highly compensated jobs.

So before starting the guide on how to become a WhiteHat Jr Hacker, first let’s understand what white hat or ethical hacking is exactly.

Who is a White Hat Hacker?

Ethical hackers or white hat hackers are the people who help organizations from data interference and breaches posed by cybercriminals or malicious hackers. They help organizations:

• Create strategies to find security vulnerabilities within their system, software, or databases.
• Find effective loopholes from where malicious hackers can easily gain access.
• Suggest and outline productive measures to avoid or stay safe against any tentative attack.

Here in the following guide,  we will cover the roadmap of “how to become ethical hacker step by step”; more like a guide on “how to become a ethical hacker for beginners” or what to learn to become a white hat hacker from scratch. 

How to be a White Hat Hacker?  A Complete Step-By-Step Process

Here is a complete roadmap on how to become an ethical hacker step by step, follow that with extreme patience & hard work and you will land on a thriving career as a certified and skilled Ethical Hacker, shortly.

Get Trained for right Certifications

• You can start by obtaining a Computer science degree.
• After that, you can enroll for CompTIA A+ Certification - where you will have to qualify two separate exams for which you can get trained by professional training platforms. These exams are made to test an individual’s ability to break down the PC and rebuild it.

Note:

• For taking the exam, you are required to display your 500 hours of practical computing experience. Once you clear it, you can earn an average salary of $44,000 annually.
• To get further in your career, you may take CompTIA Network+ Certification by preparing it via a training online. This certification will represent your outright knowledge around networks, maintenance, installation, management, troubleshooting, etc. 

Get experience in Network Support

After qualifying and getting the right certifications, to add real experience in your career, you can look for roles in network support.

The role would require you to make sure of activities like installing, monitoring, testing security programs of the company from threats & weaknesses.

Once you get enough experience in the network security field, you can look for a bigger profile like a Network Engineer for your next career leap.

Become a Network Engineer

By getting the position as Network Engineer, you will be eligible to earn an average of $60,000-65,000 per year.

As a Network Engineer, your role will expand and demand you to design and plan networks than just support and test the networks.

To gain more information and skills, you can take up the certifications like CISSP, TICSA, Security+ - which will guide you broadly on how to meet the security measures of organizational systems.

• The CISSP is a globally popular security certification that aims at testing your knowledge around risk management, application development, and cloud computing.
• Whereas, TICSA is also another recognized certification that aims to test your knowledge around what’s covered in CISSP one.
• Security+ is the US approved accredited certification that tests your knowledge around concepts of cryptography, control & identity management, etc.

By taking these certifications via accredited Ethical hacking training and certification programs, you can easily secure your role in the Information Security field.

Get a role in Information Security

The people in the information security field can get an average salary of $69,000 annually. This job role would be your final ladder to becoming a certified and skilled ethical or white-hat hacker.

In this Information Security Analyst job role, you would be required to:

• Examine & monitor systems and network security.
• Deal with security breaches.
• Work on putting robust security measures in place for the organization.

For this role, you need to get a hand full of experience in penetration testing methods & tools.

Along with this job profile, You can get your hands on preparation on Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification, which is offered by the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants via a certified Ethical Hacker Training program.

During the CEH training program, you will learn everything that an ethical or white-hat hacker requires to do, from hacking into a network to identifying any security problems that exist in any given system.

After gaining the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification, you can easily market yourself as a professional ethical hacker or white-hat hacker. 

Benefits of undergoing Ethical Hacking Training and Certification?

• Security expertise to prevent a breach of the network of any business or organization.
• Ability to prepare a detailed analysis of your findings or suggestions that can improve the company’s network security.
• A handsome annual average salary of $71,000 with an additional bonus of $15,000 - $20,000 as well.
• Once you get the growing experience and have gained all the expertise, you can keep growing with an annual average salary of $120,000 as well.

So this was it, an easy & quick guide on “how to become ethical hacker step by step”. Follow it and you will be good to go.

Final Thoughts on How to Become a White Hat Hacker!

With black hat hacking coming to rise, the need for expert white hat hackers has also gained prominence. With hacking issues taking the world by storm, the need for expert, skilled ethical hackers have become more of a necessity than a choice. 

Every small to big scale digitally thriving company is posed at a certain risk of cyberwarfare and is expecting to hire certified professionals who could help them thrive securely into the digital ecosystem.

The kudos part to make a career in Ethical Hacking by following the above “how to become a ethical hacker for beginners” guide has to be its payscale and the constant and never-ending demand for professionals. Anyone who follows this guide on “how to be a white-hat hacker” by putting little patience & hard work can ace this career with ease.