3 Reasons To Kickstart A Career As An Ethical Hacker. It’s a techie dream job to spend your day trying to hack into systems and networks, in a way that won’t risk jail terms or hefty fines. White hat hackers are the good guys in the cyber security realm – and it’s a legitimate career path for many people across the globe!

Perhaps you could be one too.

Why should someone consider starting a career as an ethical hacker? Why is penetration testing a tempting job prospect?

Here are 3 compelling reasons to claim the title as a white hat hacker:

1. The hacking business is booming

From media corporations to governments to companies of all industries and sizes, they’re all at risk of falling victim to cyber security attacks, which could potentially take down an entire business.

Now more than ever before, security specialists, penetration testers and ethical hackers are becoming increasingly wanted, to help stay ahead of the malicious individuals and groups looking to bring destruction and harm.

These online courses are everything you need to launch into a successful and profitable career in the ethical hacking business!

2. There’s significant money at stake

Black hat hackers are becoming smarter, sneakier, more aggressive and more prevalent so businesses are willing to pay big money for penetration testers and ethical hackers to help protect them.

In fact, penetration testers and ethical hackers are one of the most crucial roles in defending an organization’s entire data and network infrastructure. It’s no surprise businesses are willing to invest in top quality security specialists.

3. It’s a fascinating career opportunity

Cyber security is an exciting space to delve into, often on the brink of cutting edge technology. Fuel your competitive spirit in the race to beat the black hat hackers and protect the systems you’re in charge of.

The best way to know if this is perfect for you is to get a taster for what ethical hacking and penetration testing has to offer.

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program to learn about client-based, server-based, and application-based web attacks and how to mitigate these.

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Horangi praises Singapore’s initiative on new cybersecurity accelerator programme. In the pursuit of becoming Start-up Nation, Singapore plans to launch its first cybersecurity-centric accelerator programme in April.

The pioneer programme will commence with the support from Singapore’s very own Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) with aims to accelerate start-ups in cybersecurity sectors.

Under the programme, the cybersecurity entrepreneurs have access to a three month stint at a start-up hub, named Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block 71 (ICE71). In that hub, the hopefuls will learn pre-accelerator boot camp, accelerator training programme and landing pad for start-ups with Europe-based cybersecurity accelerator Cylon.

“Government support for cyber security is critical to grow Singapore’s regional expertise and cyber security startups like Horangi will benefit from these programs,” said Paul Hadjy, CEO at Horangi Cyber Security (Horangi).

Hadjy told Hackwarenews team that the state top-down approach is essential in supporting the embryonic state of cybersecurity development in Singapore.

In his opinion, the barrier for growth in the cybersecurity security often pointed down to the shortage of talents in the field. Thus, the accelerator programme will allow the startups to gain access to funding as well as the right mentorship to groom talents and expertise.

Besides the lack of talents, Hadjy highlighted that many Southeast-Asia based firms have downplayed the values of cyber security in their overall corporate strategy.

“Many ASEAN companies view cyber security as an IT task and not an overarching business risk,” opined Hadjy.

This oversight causes many decision-makers to set ineffective budget targets for cyber security spending, which in turn leads to myopic, ineffective spending. However, he noted that corporate companies are gradually changing their mindset on the importance of cyber-security.

“Today, organizations in Singapore and other regions are shifting towards a more holistic view of cyber security; where it has become a pressing concern that affects business processes across all enterprises.” concluded Hadjy.

Going forward, he believed that enterprises should engage a third party cyber security company in helping them to analyse their profile and identify system vulnerabilities. Then, the outcome of the analysis can be used to formulate plan to protect key data and assets from breaches.

To Centurion Information Security, cybersecurity always come first. The Singapore-based penetration testing and security advisory firm met up with HackwareNews team to share their invaluable experience on the ever-changing cyber-security world.

Sunny Neo, senior consultant of Centurion, told HackwareNews that there was still room for improvement in the cybersecurity mindset of Singapore-based companies.

“More than often, Singapore-based companies engaged our services for penetration testing at the last stage of their project development,” observed Neo.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm   

Relying on security testing only towards the end of the project completion phase often results in needing to rectify security flaws found at the last minute. This could possibly require re-designing, coding and quality testing all over again; all of which are timely and costly. In some instances, a delay in a new product launch would even cause an organisation to lose their competitive edge within their market.

To Neo, the best solution would be for organisations to incorporate cybersecurity throughout the different project milestones. This could include consultancy during the planning phase, secure design/code reviews during development, and finally vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.

Identifying and understanding possible risks earlier would allow security controls to be implemented concurrently with the system from the ground up. This would also save effort and cost for the organisation.

Secure by Design

“Secure by design, is what we want to achieve during project development,” opined Neo.

However, not many firms are able to fully attest to this statement, “secure by design”, especially among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as compared to the larger, established financial institutions based in Singapore.

“SMEs have generally not picked up the cyber-security mindsets as compared to the banks,” Neo told HackwareNews.

In his opinion, apart from the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) in Singapore, cybersecurity regulations are fairly new – such as the recent cybersecurity bill proposed in 2017. Hence most industries are less mature than their counterparts in the financial industry when it comes to cybersecurity.

In contrast, banking and finance industries are heavily regulated and are required to comply with the Technology Risk Management (TRM) implemented by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This has led to more awareness and better implementation on their part, including the development and publication of the Penetration Testing Guidelines for the Financial Industry in Singapore by The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS).

Prevention is Better Than Cure

Neo often used the phrase, “Security is not a job but a lifestyle” – a value held by the Centurion Security consultants. They believe that cybersecurity-conscious firms and personnel constantly need to keep up with the latest trends and technology.

Questions like, “How can we breach this system, before they are actually being breached” must be asked to make sure that they remain on top of their game.

Solving the Talent Shortage

In this aspect, Centurion wants to do its part by conducting training and workshops, targeted at software developers and project managers to provide updates on the latest buzz in the cybersecurity ecosystem. Firm believers in contributing back to their industry, they are involved in various activities with this goal in mind.

Keen on sharing knowledge, Centurion often speaks at events within the cybersecurity community. Most notably, Centurion’s Principal Consultant, Ryan Baxendale, presented on “Microservices and FaaS for Offensive Security” at the 2017 DEF CON Conference – the world’s longest running and largest underground hacking conference, in Las Vegas.

Beyond that several Centurion consultants are also Adjunct Lecturers teaching at several polytechnics in Singapore, exposing students to real-world cybersecurity issues. Recently, the company is also sponsoring students to attend the upcoming security conference “Infosec in the City”.

After all, Neo believes that cyber-security is one big community where participants share tools and learn new techniques to grow together. This mindset was also in line with Centurion’s core values of educating, doing research, and offering bespoke consultancy services to organisations ranging from SMEs, to MNC across different sectors and even to different government entities.