If there is one practice that businesses have started following religiously in 2020, it’s cybersecurity. 2020 gave many reasons to make internal and external security a top priority, and a lot has changed in a world that is slowly recovering from the wrath of COVID-19. More and more companies started hiring individuals with penetration testing certification or similar relevant training to counter the rise in online threats.
For instance, fake phishing webinar emails became a common social engineering tactic and caused great damage. By the end of 2020, damages due to cybersecurity hit $1 trillion [2]. Organizations have woken up to the fact that beating cybercriminals without ethical hackers and penetration testers is an impossible task.
Penetration testing or pen testing is the most important resource an organization can possess to effectively counter cyberattacks before they happen. If you hold a penetration testing certification, your employability and industry expertise will automatically increase.
There are many platforms from where you can complete a penetration testing course. But the kind of importance that CPENT or Certified Penetration Testing Professional by EC-Council receives from top employers is unmatched. In this blog, we will find out what elevates the status of this certification.
What Is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is much like ethical hacking, where testers attempt to break into a system to find exploitable vulnerabilities before malicious actors can use them. Vulnerabilities can include design flaws, configuration errors, or software bugs. All organizations, regardless of their scope or nature, can greatly benefit from penetration testing.
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A penetration tester should have training in ethical hacking.
Unlike ethical hacking, which aims to encompass various attacks through different hacking techniques to find security flaws, penetration testing focuses on the security of the specific area defined for testing.
You need a certain set of skills for penetration testing, such as:
◉ Pen testers should know how to find vulnerabilities within the target environment.
◉ It focuses on the security of a specific part of an IT infrastructure.
◉ Penetration testers should possess the knowledge of properly executing different hacking methodologies along with the right time and process to execute them.
◉ Security professionals who work as pen testers have to develop skills to think like malicious hackers, through which they anticipate how the system could be compromised.
Apart from this, a penetration testing professional should also stay updated with the latest technologies that use the internet and can be targeted by hackers. This is where EC-Council’s CPENT takes the lead from its counterparts.
What Makes CPENT a Versatile Penetration Testing Certification Program?
Let’s consider that you are either in a certain stage of your IT professional career or an ethical hacker planning a transition. Certified Penetration Testing Professional or CPENT is designed to fulfill your needs in both scenarios. It is the most advanced and elaborate training program that will open new career opportunities for you. Here are a few reasons that make this penetration testing training course one of a kind:
IoT Security
CPENT is the first penetration testing certification program to include IoT security in its syllabus. IoT devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks and pose a great danger to your security as a result. CPENT teaches you to gain access to the network by locating IoT devices. A penetration tester gains access to identify the IoT device’s firmware, and extract and reverse engineer the cyberattack.
Advanced Binary Exploitation
Under advanced binary exploitation, CPENT includes 32- and 64-bit code challenges. Some of the codes are compiled with basic protections of non-executable stacks. The candidates seeking penetration testing training must write a driver program to exploit these binaries to discover a method to escalate privileges. IT professionals who complete CPENT gain expertise in finding flawed binaries, which they can reverse engineer to write exploits and take control of the program execution.
Module Dedicated to ICS SCADA Networks
ICS (Industrial Control System) are command and control networks designed to support industrial processes. SCADA refers to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems, the largest subgroup of ICS. Pen testers are required to secure the systems because of the nature and scale of the operations. The CPENT range contains a zone dedicated to ICS SCADA networks. During the certification program, you are taught to penetrate it from the IT network side and gain access to the OT network.
Pivoting and Double Pivoting
During pivoting, you will have to identify the filtering rules to penetrate the direct network. After this, you’ll have to use single pivoting methods through a filter to perform pivots into hidden networks.
While pivoting is popular among seasoned pen testers, double pivot was introduced into the mainstream by EC-Council. It is a manual process that increases the success rate of penetration tests.
Apart from these factors, CPENT also covers topics including:
◉ Advanced windows attacks
◉ Advanced binary exploitation
◉ Bypassing a filtered network
◉ Pen testing operational technology
◉ Privilege escalation, and more
This certification program will elevate your IT professional career and promote you to the upper echelons of industry experts. A CPENT certified pen tester will also join an elite club of security professionals around the world.
Eligibility for Certified Penetration Testing Professional Certification
Eligible candidates for CPENT are listed below.
◉ Network Security Officers
◉ Self-Trained Hackers
◉ Network Server Administrators
◉ Security Testers
◉ Firewall Administrators
◉ System Administrators
◉ Risk Assessment Professionals
Elevate Your Career with CPENT
It is no secret that careers in tech are a fantastic path that evolve into a successful job trajectory and secure income. According to PayScale, an entry-level penetration tester with at least one year of work experience can earn an average total compensation of USD 67,840. Those in the later stage of their career can go on to earn an average cumulative compensation of USD 125,903.
A Certified Penetration Tester typically follows a career path similar to other IT professionals. You may initially begin in general IT and later specialize in penetration testing through a Certified Penetration Testing (CEH) certification. Afterwards, you can work towards becoming a junior ethical hacker or penetration tester.
CPENT maps to the following job roles:
◉ Penetration Tester
◉ Mid-Level Penetration Tester
◉ Security Engineer
◉ Cyber Security Assurance Engineer
◉ Cyber Security Engineer
◉ Technical Operations Network Engineer
◉ Information Security Engineer
◉ Application Security Analyst II
◉ Cyber Security Forensic Analyst
◉ Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst
◉ Junior Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst
◉ Cyber Threat Analyst Tier 2
◉ Information Security Analyst
◉ Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
◉ Senior Information Assurance/Security Specialist
◉ Security Systems Analyst
◉ Network Security Information Analyst
◉ IT Security Analyst III
◉ IT Security Administrator
Source: eccouncil.org
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