How to become a Ethical Hacker ? Know about the requirements to become one

• In this article you will learn:
• 1.Take part in Bug Bounty Hunting .
• 2.Look for a Job in Cybersecurity .
• 3.Produce Cybersecurity Content .
• 4.Work as a Freelancer .
• 5.Participate in Criminal Activity.
• 6.Conclusion.

Take part in Bug Bounty Hunting:

• By participating in a bug bounty programs could earn some serious money. Companies like Apple could pay you up to 1 million dollars for a critical vulnerability. In reality only a small amount of a hunters do earn enough money from bug bounty programs for a living. If have no experience with a bug bounty hunting.
• If need to become a hunter my website is pretty more dedicated for it. Slowly build up a skills practice the learned concepts and participate in public programs in a free time. After earning some bucks and are being invited to a private programs and might consider switching to it full time.
• However most of an ethical hackers treat a bug bounty hunting as a part time job and aren’t making enough money to quit job. However there are superstars that are earning hundreds of a thousands dollars annually.
• A Payouts from some of the companies for a critical vulnerabilities might be tens of thousands of dollars. For example like this one.
• While finding that one vulnerability might take a months and it might be wasted time if nothing is found success stories shows that one can make the living from this.

Look for a Job in Cybersecurity:

• Getting a cybersecurity job can extremely rewarding. With a cybersecurity specialists shortage worldwide anyone with enough experience could get the well-paid job.
• However the keyword is with enough experience Entering the field might more challenging. Even having well-respected certificates such as OSCP might not land a job. What is also worth having in a mind if do not have experience in IT jumping straight into cybersecurity is a bad idea.
• Before switching to a security must have solid IT knowledge be able to understand networking web applications, programming and many other things. If need to be able to find a security flaws at first should understand how does a software works. Without that won’t be a successful specialist.
• Ethical hacking is often about a unique perspective. If capable to find a security vulnerabilities that no one had identified and will be rewarded. While the hacking a mindset could be learned if need to get in only because of money won’t succeed.
• According to Glassdoor average salary for a penetration tester is over 107 000 USD.
• While this is a salary can expect in the US and the pay will probably be lower in other countries being a penetration tester is still a more rewarding career.

Produce Cybersecurity Content :

With the cybersecurity industry booming there is a demand for high-quality cybersecurity content. More people do want to enter a field and are looking for a way to start. While there is already lot of great content created definitely not everything is covered and can always find the subtopic that a lacks educational content.If need to make a money from hacking you can choose various forms of content creation:

• Make educational videos on a YouTube. Later monetize them with ads.
• Create a own blog how a cybersecurity focused blog might look like.
• Create a courses and sell them Platforms Like Udemy already have various cybersecurity courses.

To take inspiration these are some of known content creators of ethical hacking and also cybersecurity:

• STOK is a YouTuber that creates a hacking content. He hosts bounty Thursdays live sessions where covers a news of the bug bounty hunting. He perfectly finds the balance between informativeness and entertainment.
• Farah Hawa is an example that should not be an expert to create cybersecurity content. She is learning along the way and is teaching the things that she have learnt.
• TCM Security Academy creates a paid educational courses and certifies penetration testers.
• While beginning much be hard and this is not a fast way how to make a money from hacking and will slowly build the audience. At a same time will be creating a portfolio that might help to land a new clients.

Work as a Freelancer:

Just like can be a freelance developer can be freelance hacker and might offer a different cybersecurity services:

• Penetration testing.
• IT consulting.
• Red teaming.
• Risk assessment.
• Helping companies to recover after a hack.

Have a choice on what type of projects need to work. There is a need for a penetration testing of particular website that might take up to a week to finish. And there are a big companies that has a lot of work to outsource and has a projects running that would take months to complete.I am not saying that it is simple to get these big clients but everything is possible. If have experience and can prove that are have the needed skills will definitely find a job. Being a freelancer has its an own perks. While can’t always predict how many gigs are will have will have the freedom to choose projects are want to work with. If willing to switch from full-time job to hacking freelancing do it slowly and build up the number of clients before quitting a job.

Participate in Criminal Activity:

• Added this method ironically as this is definitely not a way to go. Do not encourage any form of a illegal hacking neither does anyone from the cybersecurity community. Not only this is not morally accepted but in a reality this does not even pay it off. And will explain why.
• Participating in the criminal activity requires a deep knowledge of a cybersecurity. Not only that must understand how to stay anonymous and how not to get a caught.
• It needs such a tremendous skillset that being on a dark side simply does not pay it off. With these excellent skills would be able to get a highly paid prestigious job as the cybersecurity specialist in international company.
• And on contrary being the bad guy and would constantly live in a fear as the big guys like FBI might come to one day. And it does not matter if do not live in US they can come would be extradited to US to stand a trial. Many such cases had occurred in a past.
• With the big salary and an extra perks that a legal job would provide being criminal does not sound so tempting. And on a contrary ready to microwave laptop at a middle of the night being extra paranoid not being able to tell an activity to anyone and not trusting anyone.

TL: DR – without an excellent skills will get caught soon and won’t earn anything. With a skills might live for a while without getting caught but compared to a career in a respected international company being on a dark side is not worth it.

Conclusion:

This is the industry just like any other. There are various ways to make money from hacking – a 9 to 5 job is not the only option. Might become a freelance hacker might participate in a bug bounty programs create educational content or just organize trainings. Cybersecurity is an area with the lot of opportunities especially nowadays. The shortage of specialists and growing number of cyber attacks requires businesses to invest more. And this means many opportunities for workers.