Ethical Hacker Community Forums

Hello Ethical Hackers,

There is a big problem in my life , which is i don't know what to take in my life or what is the next step , i admire ethical hacking and i want to be an CEH , i was preparing for that too to take the exam from EC-council .

but my friends told me to concentrate more on programming because i am .Net Developer using C# , They told me the person with two intentions will fail to do any one of them , They told me to concentrate on programming and leave E-Hacking . But i need to take them both , i merely tell them that there is no difference between them , an E-Hacker must understand programming and must be a professional programmer before being an E-Hacker to conduct vulnerability detection and actually E-Hacking is multidisplinary field you must understand (computer architecture, networking,electronics , embedded system design , operating systems fundamentals , programming ,web programming to conduct ethical hacking and countermeasuring those) So my question : can i hold the stick from the middle??????? i mean can i take them both ??????? or you guys left programming to be become E-Hackers , Really i am destroyed from inside , i would like to be CEH without losing my programming skills.

Second, the companies here demand programmers rather than e-hackers so if i would like to work i will work as a developer , i don't know how to work as CEH , i thought about building a simple personal small company for me and advertise for companies to conduct penetration testing for them ???? so what do you think about this idea ???????? please understand my situation and try to help me with advices from geeks in the industry like you guys . Thanks very much my friends .


Any help will be appreciated.

Snouto,

everyone in life has an opinion, doesnt make it the right or wrong opinion, but it is specific to them.

It is good to want to achieve things and have goals in your life. So if you want to study the tools and topics relating to CEH go ahead. In my opinion :) you dont have to be a full time pentester etc to be an Ethical Hacker, it can be a hobby not just a career.

I work in Information Security, but my interests span the whole IT and Information Security spectrum. I prefer to have a broad range of knowledge and skill sets, others prefer to become the master of one. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

I would go with what you want to do, perhaps study the CEH part time, and maybe in the future this may lead you to getting a full time CEH job, perhaps you will stay in programming but with a much better understanding of various vulnerabilities and techniques to review your code. I think you have a lot to gain, and little to use.

All the best with what ever you decide to do in life.

Thanks Dale, You are awesome guy , and kind one , really thank you for two things
 the first thing : your generous reply to my question
the second thing : your kind heart , really thank you dale i really greatly appreciate your reply you are so kind thanks again


good luck my friend in your carreer

My pleasure Snouto,

be sure to keep us informed as to what you do, and even though I dont spend as much time on this forum as I should, stick around, very nice people on here, and Don is a legend.

Dale

its easy. whenever possible...do what you like. 

I just got started with a company that does IA by doing pen tests and vulnerability assesments. The team here is multidiscplined. We have our network gurus and our perl mongers and our scripters and our windows guys and the Linux dude. We all bring something different to the table. Not all of us can code, but most of us can read through code enough to understand what it is doing. Do what you want in your life. Every one will have an opinion. Especially here. Good luck.