Evening all, how are you? I only very recently learned of the ethical hacking career and must admit I'm very interested in pursuing it. Being disabled makes travel to colleges in other states that offer courses in ethical hacking or IT security very difficult.

I'm curious if there any online degree courses in ethical hacking (penetration testing specifically) that a beginner seeking a bachelor's degree equivalent study might be interested in?

Dynamik, WGU seems to have a good rep on the board and techexams.net, I was browsing them earlier today and may need to take a second look...

Unrelated but what is MSIS?

http://www.wgu.edu/online_it_degrees/information_security_assurance_degree Based on this link and the certs involved I'm rather impressed already

I would assume it's a Masters of Science in Information Systems/Security

Hello and welcome.  In addition to the good advice you have received thus far, I would say to get some books at your local library such as:  Hacking For Dummies, Hacking Exposed:  Sixth Edition, Exam Cram's Security +, etc.  I do not know what your background is, but you will also want to look at networking related books that breakdown TCP/IP and other networking fundamentals too.  I would recommend trying to pick up on a programming language like Python.

There are online degree programs available online, but they concentrate on IT Security and not Hacking I believe.  I see that DeVry offers a few options in the IT Security realm so may want to give that a look.

Hope this helps!

Correct. http://www.scis.nova.edu/masters/msis.html

In theory, perhaps. I would have to take a closer look at the objectives, but I'm pretty sure they are separated enough where it's not necessary to build one on the other. Will it help you to do it in that order? On the knowledge side, absolutely. Specifically for earning the other certifications? Probably not too much.

It depends on your background and what knowledge/experience you currently have. With little or none (as in, computers are fairly brand new) then doing the A+ before moving to either of the other two is probably a good start. If you know your way around basic hardware/software/desktop stuff and troubleshooting, but need to get a better handle on networking and protocols then certainly go with Network+ as it should provide a good foundation before Security+ - if not directly helping you to earn the certification and pass the exam, it will definitely make some topics and concepts make more sense.

Hope that helps answer your question.

BillV