How to Become a Pen Tester

Become a Pen Tester

Pen testers are information security private detectives who uncover vulnerabilities and threats before malicious operators can act. Disreputable actors are always looking for ways to exploit a vulnerability in a system. It is their job to identify and repair these vulnerabilities to ensure the system’s security. A pen tester will perform various types of attacks to detect any weaknesses. They may also be called ethical hackers, as they compete with real-life hackers. They perform several types of tests and report their findings to the IT team or management.

Pen testers often receive a variety of benefits as part of their compensation. These can include bonuses, corporate pension plans, private health insurance, gym memberships, and even sponsored professional growth opportunities. As a result, pen testers are sought after by businesses in all sectors. In addition to financial benefits, a pen tester’s skills are in high demand. Because of their ability to identify vulnerabilities, pen testers are paid well. Many companies pay pen testers well for their services, as they are more apt to uncover vulnerabilities before the threat actors can take advantage of them.

A pen tester’s toolbox includes network penetration testing tools. Wireshark and Metasploit are two popular tools. The first allows pen testers to get inside the target network. The other two tools, Scapy and BeEF, are designed to drill down into TCP/IP connection issues. The latter has decryption and real-time analysis capabilities. Lastly, Sn1per, a network vulnerability scanner, is essential to a pen tester.

How to Become a Pen Tester

Pen testers have the power to save organizations millions of dollars. Their expertise allows them to protect thousands of people. Pen testers must be adept at resisting the lure of evil. While they require an innate desire for breakable things, pen testers make good money. A master’s degree in cybersecurity can help you reach your goals. It is a great way to further your education while gaining experience in a rapidly growing field. If you’re interested in this career path, consider attending a cybersecurity bootcamp.

Aside from traditional pentesting tools, pen testers should learn to use a variety of web-based technologies and languages. The operating system Kali is the default choice of most pentesting tools. Because it is designed for offense, Kali is easily exploitable. That’s why you should always be careful not to keep any secret files in a Kali virtual machine. Also, nmap is a network mapper. With this tool, you can gather information about running processes and open ports.

Another type of pen testing is called “gray box.” This type of penetration test requires the pen tester to have some knowledge about the internal network or web application. For this type of penetration test, the tester will start with user privileges and escalate these until they gain access to the system’s source code or system architecture diagrams. These tests are considered the most authentic because they demonstrate how an adversary with little or no inside knowledge would compromise the system. However, these tests are expensive.