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With the world moving towards the digital space very quickly, and more so because of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new avenue has opened up for criminals who can steal online data or harm businesses through the digital space. According to research, there is an attack every 39 seconds on the web.

This field of cybersecurity is now portrayed in various movies and TV series, and a number of crash courses have opened up for students and professionals. The time is ripe for a career in cybersecurity or ethical hacking as specialists in internet security are now high in demand.

The field of ethical hacking and cybersecurity are closely related. While there are several types of cybersecurity jobs, that of the ethical hacker is the primary one.

The new league of professionals called white hat hackers or ethical hackers tackle cybercrime and help locate online security flaws for companies by stay a step ahead of their malicious counterparts.

We got talking to Adith Sudhakar, a Security Architect based in California, USA, with a decades worth of experience in internet security and ethical hacking, to help us understand how to build a career in cybersecurity.

Ethical Hacking/Security Engineering is a specialization that requires strong fundamentals in computer science. Typical requirements are a bachelor's degree in engineering (preferably Computer Science) in addition to a post graduate degree in CS focussing on security, says Sudhakar.

In reality, in addition to education, it is important to demonstrate real world hacking skills to land a good job, Adith explains, adding that his security bug report to Google is what landed him his first cybersecurity job.

It is also very important to be able to articulate your work in a way that is easily understandable. A security issue that you may have found would not be prioritized unless youre able to explain clearly why it is critical in simple words, he says.

As an ethical hacker, you will need to conduct workshops in your company or give talks to sensitise everybody about how cybersecurity works.

The other thing you require is creativity. As you go looking for security bugs in a product, it is important to be creative and think of alternate avenues rather than follow a fixed plan, Sudhakar says.

This is a great time for a career in cybersecurity or ethical hacking. Adith Sudhakar says that especially in these tough times of Covid-19, companies have several openings for Information Security.

With more awareness about internet security, companies are also hiring experts to look after these aspects.

Companies are basically looking for candidates who have a strong fundamental knowledge of security vulnerabilities. e.g. OWASP Top 10 Web application vulnerabilities.

In this job, it is important to be able to find security issues in code. So, you may be given a code snippet that has a vulnerability and you will be expected to find the vulnerable line of code, and provide a fix for it, says Sudhakar.

While salaries vary widely depending on the company and location, in India, starting salaries vary from 4 lakh per annum in consultancy companies to up to 18 lakh per annum in product companies such as Cisco, Amazon, Adobe etc.

In the US, it is common to get salaries in excess of 100,000 USD per annum for a new college graduate.

To make a career in ethical hacking or cybersecurity, Adith suggests the following reading material from the web:

Ultimately, ethical hacking is a skill that you will learn by doing, so I encourage all aspiring cybersecurity professionals to start finding and responsibly (ethically) disclosing security issues to both open source software as well as major companies through bug bounty programmes, advices Adith Sudhakar.

Read: Career in the field of Ethical Hacking: Check course structure, college options, fees and salary here

Read: A quick guide to a career in Cybersecurity: Qualifications, skills, job description and salary

Read: 8 Cybersecurity career options in high demand now

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Career in cybersecurity or ethical hacking: Where to study, starting salary and job interview questions - India Today