ANTenna Blog -- Security

Know your enemy means knowing how your enemy works. That's the philosophy behind McAfee's Foundstone Professional Services Ethical Hacking course. You, too, can learn how to find and exploit network vulnerabilities -- but only if you pledge to use the knowledge for good.

The five-day Certified Ethical Hacking course, offered by Foundstone in partnership with security certifier EC-Council, includes the following instruction areas:

Strategies and Methodologies of Penetration Testing
Network and System Enumeration
Attack Vector Identification
System Exploitation
Reporting and Business Need for Penetration Testing

followed by an exam.

Pass the exam and you get your certification as an ethical hacker. Imagine your parents' pride!

Seriously, the curriculum looks interesting and thorough, though in an environment as rapidly evolving the current threat landscape, one can imagine that the contents of the modules will themselves evolve and change constantly.

And I can't help but wonder if someone who really wants to hack for bad rather than for good will have too many qualms about signing an ethical agreement.

They might have qualms about the price tag, which appears designed to keep casual students (ethical or otherwise) away: the course runs $2,500.

A schedule of upcoming Ethical Hacker classes is here.