Ethical Hacker Salary in USA - Knowing the ethical hacker salary in USA is good to get intruded into this segment. Certified Ethical Hackers (CEH) are well in demand and it is likely to snatch marvelous career & job options in the future. Ethical hacking has erupted as a lucrative career option around the globe. Well, it isn’t without legitimate reasons. Since the rapid evolution of internet demarcations, the need for ethical hackers also has grown accordingly. This guide will demonstrate the following concepts:
- What is Ethical Hacking?
- Who is an Ethical Hacker?
- What Does an Ethical Hacker Do?
- What are the Skillsets Needed to Become an Ethical Hacker?
- Ethical Hacker: Job Profiles & Career Prospects
- Salary of Ethical Hacker
Now is the time to get along with each topic individually to explain the ethical hacking concept in a broad manner.
What is Ethical Hacking?
In a general sense, hacking is illegal. But it becomes legal/legitimate if done with permission from the concerned authority.
Unlike malicious hacking, ethical hacking is an authorized exercise of getting into system security to determine the potential data breaches & threats in any network.
Hence, ethical hacking is to perform legitimate processes and tools to scrutinize the system for malign and destructive points. Further, it is to gather and analyze the information to generate ways to further solidify the security of systems/networks.
Generally, we find the following types of ethical hacking:
- Web Application Hacking
- System Hacking
- Wireless Network Hacking
- Web Server Hacking
- Social Engineering Hacking
Who is an Ethical Hacker?
Simply put, an ethical hacker is a professional guy hired for their technical and non-technical skills to deal with exploits and vulnerabilities that occurred in a computer system.
What sets apart ethical hackers from ‘Black-hat’ hackers is the fact that these experts work as per the guidelines and permissions of the system/network’s owner.
Companies hire computer experts or hacking professionals to hack into their system to identify vulnerabilities or suspected programs to fix them. Therefore, such people who perform hacking activities with permission and without any unhygienic intent are known as ethical hackers.
Broadly, there are three types of hackers:
- White-Hat Hackers
- Black-Hat Hackers
- Gray-Hat Hackers
All ethical hackers are white-hat hackers. In contrast, black-hat hackers are those who perform hacking without permission. They use illegal hacking techniques/tools to breach the network’s security with venomous intent.
On the third place, grey-hat hackers are the blend of both white-hat & black-hat hackers. Grey-hat hackers don’t ask for the system’s owner’s permission, though, but they don’t carry any harmful motive like black-hat hackers.
Further, these hackers perform hacking just for fun or other reasons. They usually inform system owners about any threat they come across.
What Does an Ethical Hacker Do? Roles & Responsibilities of an Ethical Hacker
There is a misconception that ethical hackers have the only obligation of penetrating computer systems and identifying harmful threats to fix them. This isn’t true all the way. An ethical hacker has many more duties to perform:
- Identifying and segmenting network & system resources
- Identifying potential threats to computer network resources
- Giving priority to each level in the classified resources
- Developing relevant & effective strategies to deal with threats by prioritizing serious problems
- Determining various effective ways to minimize the harmful consequences of any attack
- Performing tests of computer network resources, web resources, software and hardware
- Developing innovative strategies to withstand new hacking methodologies proficiently
- Making sure the systems are up-to-date to mitigate the chances of possible attacks
- Preparing security profile reports and executing these reports against uninvited incidents
- Monitoring computer systems regularly for potential threats
- Designing and implementing security policies and ensuring their effective enforcement
Skills Required to Become a Certified Ethical hacker
You need to possess a plethora of technical skills to be a successful ethical hacker:
- Acquiring in-depth knowledge of computer systems, networks, security measures, program codes etc.
- Knowledge of programming
- Networking skills
- SQL injection
- Understanding databases
- Network traffic sniffing
- Scripting knowledge
- DNS Spoofing
- Knowledge of popular platforms like Windows, Linux, & Unix etc.
- Proficiency in using different hacking tools and techniques
- Orchestrate various network onslaughts
- Understanding of search engines, servers and other internet protocols
Ethical Hacker – Job Prospects & Career Paths Salary in USA
Being the world power, the United States of America (USA) involves tremendous growth in the technology and computer science sector. The nation provides mammoth growth opportunities and career scope in the domain, following the presence of several MNCs there.
With the ever-increasing technological revolutions, cybercrimes also have significantly taken place in the internet world. Consequently, the demand for certified ethical hackers has got the height during the last few years.
Certified Ethical Hacker Salary in USA
Well, the average salary of a certified ethical hacker in the USA is 90,000 US dollars per annum – as per the PayScale report.
However, it is susceptible to variate according to factors like location, skillsets, experience and company profile etc.
In terms of skillsets, ethical hackers earn as follow:
- IT Security & Infrastructure - $92,912
- Security Testing & Auditing - $91,987
- Security Risk Management - $99,001
- Cyber Security - $92,921
- Network Security Management - $90,343
- Computer Security - $86,310
Based on Location
- Washington DC - $67,000 - $1,26,121
- Atlanta - $49,550 - $1,10,936
- New York - $50,143 - $1,24,608
- San Diego - $76,754 - $1,21,694
The Final Thought
Ethical hackers are certified professionals who deserve a welcoming approach from the technology field. The USA is facing huge demand for hacking experts as cyber security has become a crucial issue in this internet-dominance world.
Moreover, the ethical hacker salary in the USA is another legitimate reason why youngsters desire to have a career in this sector. Alongside this, the job carries respect and exceptional growth space in the future. Undoubtedly, the ethical hacker career is going to fascinate newbies immensely.
