Ethical hacking may seem an oxymoron to some, but not to Computer Power corporate training, which is bringing its Certified Ethical Hacker course to Australia.
The course, developed by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), aims to teach "good guys" how to think and act like a hacker with malicious intent, in order to pre-empt the vulnerabilities before their companies can be hacked, Computer Power's director of corporate training, Bert Forbes, said.
"You do not really know if your network is secure unless you have the skills and knowledge and you try to hack into it yourself," he said.
"I mean you could click the buttons, add the patches and you can check the boxes that Microsoft or Linux tell you to check, but unless you are willing to try and see if you can, yourself, get through those security perimeters you don't ever know for sure."
The five-day course begins with an introduction to network and computer security and a fundamental understanding of how perimeter defences work. It then leads students through hands-on scanning and attacking networks set up in the classroom. Participants then study how intruders escalate privileges and the steps that can be taken to create secure systems.
Students will also learn about intrusion detection, policy creation, social engineering, DDoS attacks, buffer overflows, and virus creation.
The course is vendor- and platform-neutral and it includes more than 300 hacking tools.
"However, the course is less focused on using the latest tools. It is more about being able to use the mindset of the hacker and then know their methodologies. You can also learn to re-write the tools to better suit the specific needs of your network," Forbes said.
He said the course significantly benefits security officers, security professionals, auditors, site administrators, and anyone who is concerned about the integrity of their network infrastructure.
"The program is really not intended as an introduction to networking defences and principles. We have other courses that aim to do that."
The course is $2995 plus GST and will be held on a regular basis in cities throughout Australia and New Zealand. For more information go to: http://www.computerpower.edu.au/courses/itsecurity.php
MIS also offers the certification in Australia for $3699.
