The cybersecurity landscape is changing so rapidly and to keep on top of all the threats, you will need a good grasp of hacking concepts and security practices. The CEH or Certified Ethical Hacker (v11) certification is a certified manpower training program designed by EC-Council that arms the professionals who successfully gain it with competence across all stages of cybersecurity. In this article, I am going to explore CEH v11 in detail – why it is crucial, what are the components and how you can prepare for it.
What is Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) v11?
CEHv11 – Certified Ethical Hacker v11 by EC-Council (an advanced certification) It was designed specifically for IT professionals who have decided to concentrate on finding and eliminating security holes in systems, networks and applications. The release of CEH v11 continues to deliver comprehensive coverage across a portable range of essential tools and resources for deploying penetration tests.
Why Pursue CEH v11?
Deeper Understanding of Cyber Threats: CEH v11 makes you grasp the most recent hacking techniques, tools & trends. And this is very important information to know, especially if you want to be more prepared than would-be criminal hackers and secure your environment.
Potential Career Advancement : CEH v11 opens the door to many cybersecurity roles such as a penetration tester, security analyst and network security engineer etc. It is a great certification that gives confidence to your professional overview.
Respected Globally: One of the single best things about the CEH is that it counts towards industry recognition and can literally carry you anywhere in cybersecurity as a result. It just shows the professionalism of a professional in the field of ethical hacking / cybersecurity.
Key Components of CEH v11
CEH v11 discusses a lot of topics and tools that an ethical hacker needs to learn. Below are few of the basic building blocks:
Beginners Guide to Ethical Hacking: In this section, you will learn what is ethical hacking, the difference between black hat hackers and white hats hackers in addition to the different phases during a hack.
Footprinting and Reconnaissance:- This is the first phase during which professionals are taught about how information of a target organization can be gathered up to determine any possible vulnerabilities. This includes social engineering, network scanning and reconnaissance tools.
Scanning Networks: A module specific to network scanning techniques employed in identifying live hosts, open ports and the service information being used by such devices across your target network. There is an extensive coverage of tools like Nmap and Nessus.
Enumeration: the process of extracting detailed information from a target system, such as user names, group names, and other network resources. This is an important phase in coming up with a place to hit.
VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS: In this we learn about how to find out the security flaws which are present in different systems and applications. In this section, we will discuss some of the vulnerability assessment tool and technology.
System Hacking: This module explains methods to gain unauthorized access to systems and enumerated about password cracking, privilege escalation and maintaining backdoor access.
Types of Malware Threats: The CEH v11 covers various kinds of malware such as, viruses, worms and Trojans etc. Knowing its tactics might be a great way to defend against malware.
Sniffing: Sniffing is basically capturing and analyzing network traffic to identify security risks. Eg: Wireshark, tcpdump etc., are the tools for this.
What is social engineering : This section talks about how people can be manipulated into revealing confidential information by psychology. This comprises phishing, pretexting and baiting
DoS (Denial of Service) Attacks: In here, the professionals get to know about various kinds of DoS attacks and how they can protect themselves from these. That can be anything from network level attacks to application level.
Session Hijacking: In session hijacking, the hacker takes over a visitor’s account to control it without authorization. It also includes different ways and mechanisms.
Reference: DerbyCon 9 – Evading IDS, Firewalls & Honeypots – Covering techniques to bypass Intrusion detection systems (IDS), firewalls and honeypots
Cloud Computing: The latest version of CEH (v11) has various cloud security-related topics among which it covers the most common vulnerabilities in cloud and how organizations can secure their environments on leading-clouds using best practices.
Cryptography: Basics of cryptography, Necessary cryptographic techniques and protocols which are necessary to secure the data. Module 4 – Encryption, Decryption and Key Management
Advance your Penetration Testing capabilities: The last element of CEH v11 includes the ability to do penetration testing for device and network protection posture. This covers everything from planning, attack execution all the way to reporting on pen testers work.
How to Prepare for CEH v11
Official CEH v11 Curriculum: EC-Council offers an extensive curriculum for CEH v11 that It’s important to study. The material therein may be required reading to grasp the core ideas and tools.
Join a Training Course: Opt for an accredited training provider who offers CEH v11 courses. These are the courses that give you structured learning and practical experience.
Hone Your Skills Using Labs: If you want to be good at ethical hacking, real-world experience is a must. Take advantage of virtual labs and training environments that allow you to experiment with your work
Practice Exams: Practice exams are essential for getting familiar with the format, questions and problems you will be asked in the certification exam. They are instrumental in highlighting the gaps where you need to work on further.
Attend Study Groups: Communicating with like-minded professionals preparing CEH v11 can be beneficial. There are many Study groups, forums that a candidate can join to share knowledge and strategies.
Be in the Know: Cybersecurity changes every day. Similarly, keep learning to know the new threats, tools and techniques that are being used.
Conclusion
Introduction The CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) v11 is a professional certification in the cybersecurity domain with a substantial focus on gaining knowledge of the brutal attacks and security constraints faced by an IT infrastructure team. Through this extensive list of subject areas and tools, the CEH v11 helps professionals to assess vulnerabilities in systems/networks. It is very important that proper preparation be done by gaining hands-on experience, studying the official curriculum or keeping up to date with industry trends in order for you to pass through the CEH v11 certification exam. With cyber threats persistently advancing and maintaining relevance, CEH v11 teaches the latest knowledge to remain ahead of attackers capable of compromising coveted information assets.
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