In this article let’s take a look at step by-step how you can become an ethical hacker after 12th in India with and without a college degree along with what are the skills required and scope of jobs and the future potential of ethical hacking.
This is the most comprehensive article you can find online on this topic so I would recommend you to bookmark the article and also share the article with your friends to let them know how they can become ethical hacker and get into the cybersecurity field and make money.
So without further ado let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is ethical hacking?
Basically, Ethical hacking is all about hacking a computer to find out all the potential vulnerabilities, and patches and improve the security of the system before any malicious hacker hacks the system and steals the data.
They hack the system After taking the permission of the owner Just to find out the vulnerabilities so that they can be fixed before any cyber attack happens whereas a hacker hacks the system to steal the data without permission.
Ethical hackers work both in the government and private sectors and you can check more details about the pros and cons of ethical hacking in detail here
Now Let’s take a look at what are the skills required to become an ethical hacker.
What are the skills required to become an ethical hacker?
There are some important hard and soft skills you need to become an ethical hacker which are,
- Problem solving skills helps ethical hackers to find out the problem and get the solution to the problem because as I mentioned earlier ethical hacking is all about finding vulnerabilities and removing them from the system before any cyber attack
- Obviously as an ethical hacker you need to learn programming skills like Python and Java and there is no other way to put it
- You also need to have the knowledge of operating systems like windows Mac OS because you will be finding out vulnerabilities in the computers of different softwares and operating systems used by people and different operating systems have different vulnerabilities and flaws
- You also need to deal with cryptography which is basically converting messages into non readable form during the communication so that hackers do not find out the information
- You also need to have a lot of computers skills such as process injection killing a process networking concepts IP addresses Mac addresses routing etc
- Cybersecurity skills- Last but not least you also need cyber security skills such as antivirus, password management, app protection database management, etc
Now let’s take a look at the benefits of ethical hacking as a career option.
What are the benefits of becoming ethical hacker?
Let’s take a look at some benefits of becoming an ethical hacker.
- Ethical hacking is a very creative profession as you have to keep yourself in the shoes of hacker and identify all the potential flaws and loopholes in computer and try to fix them before the hacker does
- Ethical hackers are in great demand because any cyber attack done to company can cause a lot of financial loss along with lower credibility, ethical hackers prevent cyber attacks
- Ethical hacking is a profession where you can get high money As a salary and you can also work as a freelancer online or you can also start your own company of cybersecurity, The salaries of Certified Ethical Hackers in the US range from $35,160 to $786,676 , with a median salary of $168,948
You can check out more pros and cons of ethical hacking career in detail here.
How to become ethical hacker after 12th?
Now if you want to become an ethical hacker in India after the 12th then there are three options you can take from formal education but you should know that there is no specialized education and course for ethical hacking in particular.
You can either choose computer science engineering or do some diploma in ethical hacking or take degree courses in ethical hacking and cybersecurity field and below I will mention all the courses along with the top colleges and course fee.
So, here is a table which explains the course, duration, course fees, etc
| Course | Duration in years |
| Diploma in Cyber Security | 1-2 |
| Diploma in Ethical Hacking and IT Security | 1-2 |
| BTech CSE (Cyber Security and Forensics) | 4 |
| BTech CSE (Cyber Security and Threat Analysis) | 4 |
| BSc in Networking | 3 |
| BSc Cyber Security | 3 |
| BCA Hons. In Cyber Security | 3 |
| BE in Information Technology with IBM | 4 |
| MTech Information Security | 2 |
| MTech CSE(Information Security and Computer Forensics) | 2 |
| MSc in cyber security | 3 |
| BCA with Microsoft Cloud Computing and Cyber Security | 3 |
and now in the course fee, the average cost of diploma degree is around 50,000 rupees whereas the cost for btech and engineering is around 8 lakh rupees, mtech cost is 3 lakh rupees, the cost for degree courses which is BSc and BCA is around 2 lakh rupees for the entire course,
Now the course fee will depend upon the college you get admission into, the marks and percentage you scored in the entrance exam & intermediate course for example
if you want to get admission into top engineering colleges for BTech then you will have to write JEE exam which is a national level exam, for MTech admission you will have to write gate exam, for bsc and BCA or Diploma courses,
your 10th and intermediate marks will be considered and some degree colleges will have their own entrance exam for example Osmania University, etc, when it comes to diploma courses many colleges take direct admission based upon your 10th grades whereas some conduct their own entrance exams
like polytechnic exam which depends upon the state, you can also get scholarship in Indian colleges depending upon your financial income of your family and also on your caste.
Now lets take a look at the eligibility criteria for admission in courses,
| Course category | Eligibility criteria |
| BTech and engineering | In order to do BTech and engineering, you should have PCM on your 12th board and also get some minimum marks from a recognized university or college. |
| Bsc & BCA | In order to do BSc or BCA you should have at least 50% marks in your class 12th board to study BSC you should take PCM in your 12th and study BCA you can belong from any branch like arts science and commerce there is no restriction like BSC |
| MTech | If you want to do empty then you should graduate from BTech obviously from a recognized university and you can prepare gate exam to get some stipend and admission in top college |
| MSc and MCA | If you want MSC you should graduate from BSC obviously with 50% or above marks and the same applies for BCA |
| Diploma | 10th from any Recognized Board, minimum 35 % in 10th |
Now in order to get job opportunities and placement will depend upon your skills of ethical hacking along with your grades in academics and also which college you got admission into for example if you get admission of cybersecurity in b.tech from
IIT then you can get more job opportunities and better on-campus placements because of the reputation of the college and many companies recruit students from these colleges so you must prepare hard for entrance exams like JEE,
so that you can get good college for admission and also better placement opportunities in future and if you don’t get job opportunities in the campus then you can apply for off-campus jobs but before that you should probably go for internship in any startup and build some projects
so that you can get some practical learning and then after getting some experience apply for better jobs in companies as you have more projects and reviews to show in your portfolio to standout from the competition
How to become ethical hacker without a degree?
Now if you want to become ethical hacker without a college degree then there are two options,
- You can either enrol in cyber security boot camp online or offline
- You can also get any online cybersecurity course and get the certificate after completion of the course from platforms like Udemy and Coursera
You can click here to check out best ethical hacking and cybersecurity courses online.
You can also apply and take certifications of ethical hacking from Eccouncil & GIAC after getting the knowledge of ethical hacking and cyber security and getting a certificate can help
you a lot in terms of getting jobs and most importantly the certificate is accredited as you need to write the exam to get it so it is just like having a formal degree but without going to college you can get it.
Obviously you need to pay some money and it is around 1 week long exam on average and to get certificate from the institution after getting the knowledge of ethical hacking from online courses and boot camps.
You may not get a job directly if you try to get ethical hacking certificate without a degree as compared to getting a degree so you might want to work as a intern and gain some experience and work on some projects before you apply for any job.
You can easily find internship and job opportunities on platforms like naukri.com, indeed, upwork, LinkedIn and monster website.
There is no such specific eligibility criteria you need to match in order to take certifications and learning of ethical hacking from boot camp or online coding course as long as you are interested in the subject anyone can do it.
Now that you know how to become ethical hacker with and without a degree after 12th let’s take a look at what is the scope salary and future potential of ethical hacking as a career option.
Scope, salary, jobs and future potential of ethical hacking?
Ethical hacking is a part of cybersecurity and basically ethical hackers will find out all the vulnerabilities and security flaws in any system of company and try to fix it before the hacker exploits those vulnerabilities and hacks the system.
After You become ethical hacker you can get many jobs like,
- Penetration Tester
- Vulnerability Assessor
- Information Security Analyst
- Security Analyst
- Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
- Ethical Hacker
- Security Consultant
- Security Engineer/Architect
- Information Security Manager
And According to Glassdoor the average salary is around 50,000 rupees per month for fresher in ethical hacking in India and obviously your salary will grow with more experience and projects you take and you can also start your own cybersecurity agency and company Apart from getting employed to make money from your skill.
There are many private companies which recruit ethical hackers such as Google Intel IBM Tesla Infosys Wipro Accenture and You can also work as a ethical hacker for many government companies and
also for government directly to protect the data and improve the security of the computer systems and websites by removing all the vulnerabilities because many government agencies and departments will be prone to cyber attacks for example
Chinese hackers have performed several cyber attacks on many power grids of India, many hackers also try to steal confidential data like aadhar information from government websites of India, so You can also work for government departments to protect the data and information of the users and also important projects.
So ethical hacking is one such career where you can not only get job in private but also in government companies in India.
Let us take a look at the scope, demand and future of ethical hacking in India and the world,
According to a study, data breach can cause 3.5 million dollars loss for any company on average and cyber attacks can cause a lot of damage both financially and reduce the brand value and credibility for the users.
Every company wants to protect their data from hackers in that case the best people to help are ethical hackers because of this reason,
The growth rate is 33% which is faster than the average of 7% growth which is normally seen in many jobs and according to a report more than 3.5 million jobs will be created in the cyber security field by 2021 globally.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects “information security analyst” will be the 10th fastest growing occupation over the next decade, with an employment growth rate of 31 percent
compared to the 4 percent average growth rate for all occupations. A majority of these (entry to mid-level) positions do not require certifications and allow employers to cast a wider net for candidates.
The Hindu Business Line cites a report from Michael Page, a global recruiting consultancy, which states that India alone is expected to have more than 1.5 million job vacancies in cybersecurity by 2025.
After learning all these information all of your doubts on ethical hacking career have been clarified.
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the things you need to know about ethical hacking as a career.
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