In the Spotlight

We caught up with him to discover the road to certification, what a typical day involves and why white hat hackers are more important now than ever before.

What is an ethical hacker?

A Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) is a professional trained in the art of ethical hacking, focusing on the methodical practice of identifying, evaluating, testing, and reporting on vulnerabilities within an organisation.

Ethical hacking is a broad field that encompasses various technologies and techniques to safeguard information systems. 

Certified Ethical Hackers are often hired by organisations, either on a contract basis or as full-time employees, to enhance their security posture. These professionals are skilled in both defensive and offensive strategies, making them invaluable assets in the fight against cyber threats.

Their expertise helps organisations stay ahead of potential security breaches and ensures robust protection of sensitive data.

How do you become an Ethical Hacker, is there a career pathway?

When I was in Sri Lanka, I completed my Advanced Level (Combined Maths Stream) and got selected to university in 2015. While pursuing my university studies, I completed Cisco IT Essentials, Cisco CCNA Certification, Microsoft MCSA Certification, and Red Hat Certification (RHCSA) because I had a dream of becoming a Cyber Security Engineer. I knew I needed to learn networking, system engineering (infrastructure, Windows, Linux environments, etc.) before entering the cyber security field. As I expected, those certifications and practical knowledge helped me pass my degree.

Afterwards, I completed Microsoft AZ-900 and SC-200 certifications, which are related to the cyber security analyst role. When I finished my internships and started my proper cyber security role, I realised I needed to dive deeper into this field and learn defensive and offensive security methods. So, I selected the Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) certification course. 

It helped me a lot to learn many tactics and techniques of cyber security and gave me extensive experience with security-related tools. We can understand how attackers find and gain information to attack systems, the tactics they use, and the remedial actions and tools we can use to mitigate these activities. This knowledge helped me perform my role as an ethical hacker effectively.

What does a typical day involve?

Being a Cyber Security Engineer with an ethical hacker mindset helps us handle most of the incidents (phishing, compromised accounts, malicious activities, etc.) that come into our queue. Sometimes, we need to do reverse engineering, back tracing, analysis, and testing to identify and remediate the threat. This experience and knowledge help me view incidents from different angles and think outside the box.

Why is the role so important now?

The importance of a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) in today’s corporate world cannot be overstated, given the rising digital threats. Ethical hackers play a crucial role in identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, thereby preventing expensive breaches and ensuring compliance with regulations. Their efforts bolster security measures, safeguard the company’s reputation, and build customer trust. By securing emerging technologies and digital projects, ethical hackers facilitate safe innovation and growth, making their role essential for protecting digital assets and maintaining a competitive advantage.

At Kyocera, we support our customers by protecting their environments through various security tools (SIEM, EDRs, Vulnerability assessment tools, Endpoint manager tools, Firewalls, etc), tactics, and techniques. The role, mindset, and experience of an ethical hacker helps us improve our tactics, techniques, and methods. This also enables us to conduct simulations, prepare customer environments for known attacks, and bring our team up to speed.