Would the CEH(Certified Ethical Hacker) certification HELP, or HINDER your possible career opportunities when searching for a job in the market? I hear a lot of people tell me that if you are a "hacker" not to tell anyone especially your employer as they may see it as a threat and give ya the boot.

However if you're certified for doing such would you be more likely to become an asset to the company or a hinderance?

The CEH is a wonderful certification to have. If your future employer knows anything about it, it will certainly put you head and shoulders above anyone else applying without it. That's as long as the job you're applying for is security related.

There is a huge misconception regarding the CEH, yes you are basically a trained security expert, which gives you the knowledge, technique and tools to exploit bugs in software etc. It also mandates you to a code of conduct, of which states that you will never use this knowledge unlawfully.

As the CEH is a yearly membership certification and numerous examinations as well. They will revoke your status if you are convicted of any wrong doings.

Yeah I understand that, but the only problem I could fore see with this form of certification is the negative connotation that is found with-in the word "Hacker". When certified you are basically a security specialist, yet the media portrayals of hackers and the negative feedback associated with such is kind of a disheartening thing. Yet if people understood hackers they would realise the benefits hackers have had with-in the cyber communities and world. The enhancements in security and theft protection.

I just don't know if it would be such a good idea to tell your employer that you are, under your degree, a hacker and have the abilities to do whatever you please with-in the system. That is how most employers would more than likely look at it, as though you would blackmail them with all kinds of stuff or that you are the guy who sits in a basement in a black hooded sweatshirt furiously trying to break anything and everything they come across.

In the security field however, I know it would definitely be beneficial to let an employer know of your certification as it can only gain you more respect and trust with-in your employer by them knowing you know wht to look for and how to protect against such things as malicious hackers and script kiddies.

Any employer looking for someone within almost any IT industry will look at this certification highly. Those of us in the IT industry understand the differences between a hacker and an Ethical Hacker, or should do.

It also shows a prospective employer that you're very motivated, extremely intelligent and highly disciplined as this isn't a certification to take lightly.

Trust me in saying this. I only babysit a server farm, but my CEH one of the highlight factors that made me stand out from the crowd.

Right on...So i'm assuming, unless i read your post wrong that you have a CEH certificate? Was the test difficult, like, if I were to graduate with a comp engineering degree and learned unix and servers, would it be really difficult to pass?

Your assumptions would be correct.

This certification is extremely difficult, it is the hardest and most intense certification I've attempted to date.

Unfortunately, I would suspect that a degree in 'Computer Science' would not even touch on the same material that the CEH covers.

If you're interested, purchase the first module course book. Look through it and see if it's for you.

If you're looking for a certification that covers security without the negative connotations, then maybe something like a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer(Security).

To be honest, the Return On Investment for the CEH is just not there. It's extremely specialized.

I see, I was gonna purchase a book, it's called
The CEH Prep Guide: The Comprehensive Guide to Certified Ethical Hacking by Ronald L/ Krutz. I was also going to maybe go to a course at InfoSec which offers a week long course from beginning to intermediate and than from intermediate to advanced and you can recieve a certificate through them granted you pass the course.

This post has been edited by IngeniousHax: 23 May, 2009 - 05:22 PM

Good for you.

I looked into all the ways of covering this certification and found that EC-Council held a CEH workshop. This was 3 - 4 weeks of military style training in all things security. I found this the best way to learn their 'style' as you're immersed in the material 24 hours a day, 6 1/2 days a week.

Especially when they go through the use of certain tools, without knowing exactly what and where they're attempting to show you, you'd miss certain elements.

Mind you, it really hurt the bank balance.

Yeah I was lookin at InfoSec and I think the 5 day course runs around 600 bucks, but you walk away with a disc with what ever programs you learned during the week. I guess if you want the same kind of disc outside of taking the course it's roughly 1500 or something ludicrous.

What is it you would suggest knowing before taking a workshop like that as to ensure I wasn't just aimlessly spending money?

This post has been edited by IngeniousHax: 23 May, 2009 - 10:08 PM

Wow, for $600 for 5 days, that's an absolute bargain. When I done mine it was almost 10 times that amount.

And you weren't guaranteed to walk away with the certificate, you still had to be examined, both on knowledge and practical.

Knowledge was tough as there is quite a large amount of material that you're expected to know off the top of your head, but the practical is fairly easy as you've already covered most of the tools during the course. They just attempt to throw some lateral thinking problems at you.

Certainly, if you want to do it, no book will give you the knowledge and experience you retain from personalized training.

But in all honesty, unless you're going to be working for a company that does security testing everyday, CEH really wouldn't be worth the money. Especially when you're posting about worrying if it would be a hindrance or an asset towards employment.

Yeah, youre not exactly guranteed to walk away with a certification, you still have to be tested and than once you pass the written portion you are required to do three exploits. ONe in windows, one in linux and than you have to reverse engineer a windows binary with-in 60 days after passing your written portion. All three must have documentation and work properly, but they say if you can write two of the three working and the other mostly working you should be able to pass. IDK, I was kinda hopin to work for a gov't agency like the CIA or someone a little more secretive and 1337 than them.

Unfortunately, from what I've heard in certain circles, the CIA don't take nicely to certifications.

They're more degrees.

Yeah, I plan to get a computer engineering degree, but with certifications I imagine I would be a slightly more eligible candidate.