How to Become an Ethical Hacker in 2024?

Back in the day, the word hacker was often associated with something terrible. This mysterious figure was a hidden criminal who spread nothing but danger to companies and individuals alike.

Now, there’s a profession we’d call an ethical hacker. The underlying “ethical” here means that they work in activities to better protect companies or individuals’ security by finding vulnerabilities and reporting the findings for future security development.

This job is also considered a lucrative choice of career in this modern era. If you’re also interested in becoming an ethical hacker, here are a few tips you can follow in 2024:

Who Are the Ethical Hackers?

As we’ve explained before, hackers are always associated with bad connotations. At least that was the idea before ethical hackers came to the surface. This path of career is not actually that new. Back in the day, they worked secretly with the associated companies or organizations to find their security weaknesses.

However, as the day goes by, we start seeing that ethical hackers have become a popular choice of career for people who are interested in information security and system engineering.

Instead of infecting a system with malware or viruses, ethical hackers do a completely different job. When collaborating with related companies, they will purposely find the system vulnerabilities deep beneath the system. These weaknesses will then be put together into a report and delivered to the clients. Once approved, these good hackers will get paid according to the agreed terms.

This great collaboration between ethical hackers and companies is also one of many reasons people love working in this field. Some even consider their job to be a challenge, as they need to continuously learn about the new threats and fixes. Their task is what differentiates these white hat hackers from the black hats.

So, if you compare this job to a career related to information security, ethical hackers focus more on how to think and act as actual hackers. They will find those tiny cracks in the system and try to enter the system purposedly to find out how dangerous these weaknesses are.

Now, if you’re also intrigued about becoming an ethical hacker, there are some things you need to know beforehand.

Steps to Become an Ethical Hacker

The first steps to becoming an ethical hacker always revolve around programming. So, if you didn’t have prior knowledge about it, it’s better to start learning now to not get left behind. There are a few important steps you need to take:

1. Be more familiar with Linux

The first thing you have to do is to learn about Linux. For such a long time, this OS has been referred to be the one that has better security compared to the other systems. As you’ll be using the hacking or tweaking tools a lot, you’ll have to be more familiar with it, it’s the basic knowledge you need to have.

As for the Linux systems, we highly recommend learning Kali Linux as it’s the most popular system used for hacking purposes.

2. Learn programming languages

Aside from having the knowledge of the platform you’ll be using, you will need to understand the programming languages as well, at least the most popular ones. We highly recommend learning the C language as it’s basically the mother of all programming languages.

When you learn about C, you’ll eventually become more familiar with Linux as this language is mainly used as the basis for this operating system. So, yeah, with that in mind, you’ll have no choice but to master the C programming to use Linux in any way you want.

To work more flexibly, you may also learn more than one programming language. So aside from C, like Phyton (mainly used for exploiting), PHP (To defend or attack black hat hackers), JavaScript (to get into a mobile app), and SQL (to deal with a system with a large database).

3. Learn How to Stay Anonymous

The most important part of becoming an ethical hacker is to know how to stay anonymous when breaching a system by hiding your personal identity and leaving no trace behind. Knowing how to properly hide yourself is essential as oftentimes, ethical hackers do not realize who else is present in the same network. When a black hat hacker is in the same place as you, they would attack you and get into the system.

So, learning about the tools to safeguard your identity, like Proxychains, Anonsurf, or MacChanger is definitely important.

4. Get into The Dark Web

As you’ll be working under the surface most of the time, you’ll also need to be more familiar with how the underworld works. The dark web is a kind of topic that netizens often talk about. The mysterious and intriguing parts of it often invite those unprepared individuals who end up being at such a great risk of getting cyber-attacked.

Since ethical hackers often work anonymously, you can train yourself by visiting the dark web through Tor, the browser you’ll use. The dark web is home to so much criminality, although not every part of it is illegal. So, you’ll also need to have a deep knowledge about how to be safe in a risky environment and know how to defend yourself in case something goes terribly.

5. Have a Deeper Understanding of Hacking

This is the step when you will finally reach the first steppingstone in your ethical hacker career. After knowing much about programming languages, Linux, and the dark web, now it’s time to test your skills.

At this point, you may learn some things like SQL injections, how to penetrate a system, how to assess weaknesses, and many others. You’ll also need to keep updated about the latest security trends along with the tools to hack and secure a system.

As your job is basically to find any possible weaknesses in the system, you’ll also need to learn about how to scan networks and systems to find their vulnerabilities. Most of the time, ethical hackers would write their own codes that can be used later for specific vulnerabilities. So, each time they find a problem, they already have the solution.

However, to make the job easier, you can also depend on various weak scanning tools. There are multiple of them, each with their own unique purposes. For example, there’s the Nessus Vulnerability Scanner which you can use to scan any vulnerabilities in web apps. Another example is the Nikto Vulnerability Scanner, which can be used to scan network servers.

To be familiar with the hacking task and also the tools, just keep practicing as hard and as often as you can. Do some testing and find the tools you find most comfortable and effective to use.

To grow your networking, you can also join a group on social media. There you can find a lot of people with the same interests who are willing to share their experiences, tips, and updates with fellow members. Aside from Facebook, you can also find ethical hacker communities on Telegram, Discord, and other platforms.

The Career Stages You Need to Go Through

Like any type of job out there, you’ll also have to go through the whole ethical hacking career right from the start. The key here is patience and determination. It could take years until you finally reach the top of your career, and that’s okay. What matters here is that you have already prepared yourself for what’s to come.

To get the high-ranking jobs, surely, you have to go through several steps beforehand, such as:

1. Starting the Career

The very first step, and the most important one, is starting your career. Once you fulfill the requirements, like a degree in computer science and various certifications, you may have a chance to apply for entry-level jobs.

Although it’s entry-level, starting an ethical hacking career is already hard. Generally, the average candidate had to spend hundreds of hours practicing computing science. However, if you succeed, you can expect a salary of up to $44,000 annually.

To get into a higher career, you’ll have to fulfill the additional requirements as well. In this case, it’s the CCNA or Network+ qualification.

2. Network Engineering

Years after being in an entry-level career, you’ll eventually get into network support. This more advanced career offers a higher pay grade, which is around $65,000 per year. Instead of supporting the network system, this job requires you to do something extra. You’ll have to plan and design the network according to the goals.

To achieve an even higher career, again, there are some requirements or certifications you need to get. This time, it’s Security+, an accreditation approved by the US Department of Defense, TICSA, and CISSP. Yes, it’s more complex than the previous ones as your obligation will be harder.

3. Information Security

The next step is another significant step in your ethical hacking career. For the first time ever, you will be dealing with information security. For this job, the average amount of $69,000 annual salary.

The tasks revolve around information security dealing with breaches and putting the methods to fix those cracks in the system. With that in mind, you’ll have to be familiar with penetration hacking.

Conclusion

And that’s all we can say about how to become an ethical hacker in 2024. As you can see, becoming a white hacker is a long journey that requires extra patience and determination. However, despite the difficult obstacles, you can always go over them as long as you’re willing to continuously learn and adapt to newer technological and security updates. Keep learning and good luck!