Willing to make a career in Information security? Well, you are not alone! There are thousands of aspirants who wish to have a successful high-paying cyber security career. Undoubtedly, companies are at the risk of data breaches more than ever and are in need of top-notch security professionals who can deal with cyber attacks efficiently. Though the demand is high, you need to have both certifications and experience to become a pro in IT security and stand out from your peers.
One of the most sought after certifications that you can pursue is the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification. The CEH certification is offered by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), a globally renowned organization that certifies individuals in the field of information security. Certified Ethical hacker training is ideal for professionals who are interested in mastering ethical hacking. CEH is a vendor-independent credential that validates a candidate’s knowledge in the specific network security aspect of ethical hacking.
The CEH Exam
To become CEH certified, you need to pass the CEH exam (312-50), which is conducted for 4 hours and consists of 125 multiple-choice questions. The passing score varies according to the difficulty of the exam, and it is decided by a committee of subject matter experts at the EC-Council.
To be eligible for appearing in the CEH exam, you need to have proven experience of at least two years in the field of information security and related education background. If you do not have the required experience, you can attend an official ethical hacking training by an EC-Council accredited training provider and then take the exam.
You need to be thorough with the following concepts while preparing for the CEH exam:
- Penetration testing and its types
- Types of footprinting, footprinting tools and countermeasures to take
- Trojans and its types
- Techniques used in network scanning
- Knowledge of security audit and vulnerability assessment
- How viruses work, their analysis and mitigation
- How to protect systems from sniffing
- Understanding of webserver attacks and ways to deal with them
- Basics of wireless hacking and tools used
Apart from the above-mentioned topics, there are many other concepts that you will be tested upon. You can check the EC-Council CEH Exam Blueprint to get a detailed list of topics.
How Hard is the CEH Exam?
One of the major concerns that people usually have while preparing for the exam is the difficulty level. The question, “How hard is the CEH exam?”, pops into the mind of every aspirant. Well, an ethical hacker has loads of responsibilities to handle, and the job role requires expertise in securing systems and networks, thinking the way malicious hackers do and preventing the organization’s data from all the vulnerabilities. Hence, the CEH exam covers all the major aspects in which aspirants need to be tested so that they can handle such responsibilities.
Passing the CEH exam isn’t a cakewalk. It all depends on your knowledge, how you prepare, and how much of your hands-on experience helps you during the exam. With dedicated effort and thorough preparation, you can crack it in a single attempt.
Here are some of the tips that can help you pass the CEH exam.
Use the EC-Council Resources
Thanks to the EC-Council website, which offers many useful resources to help you know about the background reading needed, FAQs on CEH exam, domains on which you will be tested, number of questions asked from each domain, accredited training centers, and much more. You can also take the official CEH training program offered by the EC-Council that provides the knowledge of advanced hacking tools and techniques.
Attempt the EC-Council CEH Assessment
The EC-Council offers the CEH Assessment, which consists of 50 questions and tests your preparation in different aspects of ethical hacking. While it is not guaranteed that such questions may appear in the actual exam, it definitely gives you the look and feel of what you can expect in the exam. It is better to take the assessment only after a thorough preparation so that you can get the best testing experience.
Follow CEH Communities and Blogs
It is always useful to get some valuable tips from people who have already faced the CEH exam. Apart from the preparation, such tips are useful on the day of the exam and can help you avoid a lot of mistakes that you can happen to make. There are many communities, forums, and blogs related to CEH where aspirants share their success stories, study plans, preparation tips, and more. You can follow them and enhance your learning experience through it.
Play with the hacking tools
As per the EC-Council’s CEH Exam Blueprint, the section on Tools/Systems/Programs has 32 percent of the total weight in the exam. You will be tested on log analysis tools and exploitation tools. So, it is not only necessary to know the basics of the tools, but you also need to play around with the tools. The more practical knowledge you have, the better it is while facing the exam.
Take up a training course
If you are determined to add a CEH credential to your skill sets, you can also consider taking up a CEH training course. There are reputable training providers that offer online CEH courses, are accredited and match the high-quality standards set by EC-Council. Such courses deal with all the important topics step-by-step, and apart from the theoretical knowledge, they also offer labs that mimic real-time scenarios so that you can get the experience of an actual cyber attack. Moreover, when you enroll for a course, you get access to commonly used hacking tools to dive deep into the world of hacking.
Wrapping Up
Now that you know what it takes to pass the CEH exam, you can start your preparation and be ready to face the real ethical hacking situation. When you pass the CEH exam successfully, you can demonstrate your ethical hacking skills that are highly in-demand and are recognized globally. So, without a second thought, get ready to open the doors to high paying career opportunities in ethical hacking today!
