'A Day In The Life Of ' a Penetration Tester - Interview with Ian Whiting

What do you know about the career of an ethical hacker?

Source: ianhsutherland.com

SANS institute holds penetration testing at no. 2 in their top 20 coolest jobs in information security, along with the tagline: “You can be a hacker, but do it legally and get paid a lot of money”. It is not surprising that this career path is becoming more and more attractive as the cyber world becomes more developed. The need for good infosec professionals is even more acute nowadays, but this career is still tucked away on techie boards, or discussed over hack forums in technical jargon; little is understood of it by the general public.

Once in a while, stories surface outside geeky magazines about this elusive career. Portrayed as veritable digital ninjas, we see the cyber security guys in cellar-like environments, surrounded by a few machines and devices, talking about APTs, 0-day exploits and a number of acronyms that mean nothing outside of the industry. Is this the wrong image of a penetration tester? Not necessarily, but it is certainly not the only aspect of it.

CREST, the certifying body for the penetration testing industry, came up with an initiative to better acquaint people with a career in information security. Taking advantage of the wide range of infosec professionals gathered for the CRESTCon & IISP Congress 2014, CREST interviewed a number of industry representatives and put together a series of ‘A Day In The Life Of’ videos. With interviewees finding themselves at various stages in their career, the CREST videos provide a comprehensive overview of the job.

The interview below is a recount from Titania’s CEO, Ian Whiting; how he started in cyber security, where it has brought him today and what advice would he offer to those looking to enter the industry:





More episodes from the CREST series on information security careers: A Day In The Life Of'.