News
EXIN Expands Security Framework with Ethical Hacking Foundation Certification
April 2015 by Marc Jacob
EXIN expands their Security Framework with a new exam: Ethical Hacking Foundation. This exam, globally launched at the Cyber Security Week in The Hague in The Netherlands, builds on the recently launched EXIN Secure Programming certification.
Estimates of current annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime range between $375 and $575 billion, according to a recent study published by McAfee.* The worldwide cyber security market on the other hand is an emerging market and expected to grow from $71 billion in 2014 to $155+ billion by 2019, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc.
As worldwide cyber security threats and the global cyber security services market are on the rise, EXIN experiences a growing demand for certifications in the field of cyber security related subjects. Anticipating this trend EXIN recently launched its Security Framework - a certification cluster with an expanding portfolio of cyber security exams such as Ethical hacking.
Black Hats and White Hats
The global availability of the EXIN Ethical Hacking Foundation certification means IT professionals are provided with a vendor-neutral Ethical Hacking competence confirmation, from an internationally acknowledged certification institute. The new exam tests IT professionals on basic knowledge and understanding of “Ethical Hacking” – the ability to evaluate IT security systems by exploiting hardware and software vulnerabilities using hacking techniques. Ethical hacking is a well-known method of duplicating the intent and actions of malicious hackers, also known as black hats, used by security professionals, the white hats, to locate and evaluate infrastructural weaknesses.
The EXIN Ethical Hacking Foundation certification covers a variety of hacking related subjects and techniques, including network traffic analyzing, wireless network hacking, network scanning and the penetration of computer systems and websites.
More in detail, candidates are tested on their knowledge and understanding with regards to (but not limited to) the following topics:
• Network sniffing (gathering information from network traffic)
• Cracking a WPA(2) key from a wireless network
• An introduction to worms and botnets
• Network vulnerability scanning
• Basic penetration of computer systems
• Password cracking
• Web-based hacking, containing SQL Injections (SQLi), Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Remote File Inclusions (RFI)
• Analyzing log files
Recently launched within the Security Framework is EXIN Secure Programming Foundation, a certification for software developers and programmers who want to have their skills in Building Security In validated. EXIN Ethical Hacking Foundation builds on the Secure Programming certification, by adding risk assessment within application and web development to EXIN’s certification portfolio.
The new certification, based on the e-Competence Framework (e-CF)** will initially be made available in English, with language localizations in a variety of global markets following soon. The exam is available through EXIN’s partner channel and EXIN Anywhere in more than 165 countries worldwide.
The EXIN Ethical Hacking Foundation and EXIN Secure Programming certifications are developed in joint cooperation with Security Academy, a European training institute with its focus on Information Security, Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Security Management. The partnership with Security Academy is meant to combine hands-on, practical and job-oriented ICT security experience with EXIN’s vendor independent IT certification knowledge base, both at a high international level.
