Hacking has now become Ethical

Hacker is a term that was been associated as something criminal - although the movies have made them into anti-heroes

In most cases, they are a breed of anti-heroes who uses his laptop and illegally gains access to a large network and sometimes tampers with information in this large computer system.

However, thanks to EC-Council (eccouncil.org), the scenario is fast changing.

eccouncil.org have come up with a course or an Ethical Hacking course where they certify individuals in various e-business and security skills on completion of that course.

Now, what is a Certified Ethical Hacker ?

The eccouncil.org defines a Certified Ethical Hacker as an individual who is usually employed with the organization and who can be trusted to undertake an attempt to penetrate networks and or computer systems using the same methods as a Hacker.

Hacking is a felony in the United States and most other countries. When hacking is done legally, it is done as per a contract / agreement between an Ethical Hacker and an organization. The most important aspect is that an Ethical Hacker has the total authorization to probe the target so as to identify flaws in the existing network or security systems.

It's high time I took one - My reputation as the neighborhood-whiz is fast depleting and to make matters worse, my friends are also applying to this course

These are all the areas they cover for their course on Ethical Hacking, which they call the "iClass".

You can select your area of interest and join them for their next available iClass to discover all the benefits of an EC Council certification without the added expense of travel.

The registration is simple and the iclass schedule is trouble-free and the areas of interest include, but are not limited to;

Security Fundamentals
Ethical Hacking
Penetration Testing
Computer Forensics
Disaster Recovery
Secure Coding

A lot of IT Security Professionals have had joined the EC Council and mentioned is the feedback from a few of them - "Its been a great experience to attend this outstanding and informative web course, and the teaching methodology was exceptional." EC Council puts it’s money where it’s mouth is and aren’t afraid to show what they are all about and best of all its on their money !

Now why is Ethical Hacking in so much demand despite the recession now? I can safely say with my limited know-how that there is always a need for security everywhere and that that a hacker job is listed as one among the six highly paying jobs (so why not get a certificate for it ??)

Infact, IT security professionals are the highest-paid and by joining eccouncil.org, they could well be on the way to get paid to be a top "legal" hacker!

To top it all you can be certain that your career in IT Security will not be affected by the current economic meltdown.