Leetspeak: The History of Hacker Culture's Native Tongue

You've probably seen leetspeak, also known as 1337 or “l33t,” somewhere on the Internet or in a movie about computer hacking. It's essentially regular English, but with more hacker slang and with certain letters changed to numbers. 

Leetspeak – An Origin Story

Developed in the early 1980s, leetspeak actually predates the World Wide Web by nearly a decade. It started on Bulletin Board Systems when the Internet was first developing and only people with elite status could access certain content.  That content often included information that those elites didn't want anyone outside their circles to find. 

Outsmarting the System

In those days, search functions scanned for specific keywords to identify their targets. Early hacker communities figured out that changing a few of the letters within a word could throw the search engines off the proverbial scent.  By using “h3ll0” for “hello,” for example, they could protect the privacy of their content while keeping it readable among themselves.

The Mark of an "3l33t"

As leetspeak became more well-known, gamers began to use it to present themselves as high status. The phrase “1 4m 3l33t!” (or, “I am elite!”) became a popular way for both gamers and hackers to show that they had reached the top of the pack.

Levels of L33t

Th1s s3nt3nc3 1s wr1tt3n 1n b4sic l33t. ("This sentence is written in basic leet.")

It's pretty understandable, even to someone who isn't well versed in the world of computer hacking. All you do is get rid of vowels and substitute numbers that look similar.

The Next Step

Intermediate-level leet starts to get the consonants involved, and it looks “50meth1n9 l1k3 th15.” It's more challenging to read than basic leet but still decipherable, particularly to eyes and brains that are already familiar with the basic form. A 5 looks enough like an S, for example, that a reader can go from “is” to “1s” to “15” without excessive confusion.

Advanced Leet

Advanced leet brings in yet more replacements, including more replacements per letter.   

If you read a message in basic or intermediate leet, the replacement for the letter E will almost always be the number 3. Once you get into advanced leet, however, you have a lot more options. You can still indicate E using 3, but you can also use &, €, ë, and even |=-. Just the word leet has dozens of possible translations, from the classic l33t to |_&€”|”.   

Your Basic L33t Vocabulary

As with any dialect, there are words that anyone who is “in the know” has to have in their vocabulary. Many of them have to do with status. (Specifically, the speaker being of a higher status than others.)

“Pwn”

“Pwn” is one of the most popular leetspeak words in hacker culture. It's an intentional typo of “own,” a word that the early hackers of the 80's used to mean taking over control of another computer.   

Urban legends offer a number of explanations for how the shift from “own” to “pwn” happened. Some say that it has always been an intentional misspelling, while others say that it was an honest mistake that took off in common usage.   

In either case, it's become a popular way to express your victory or defeat. While you can definitely “pwn” someone, it's also common to admit that you “g0t pwned.” It's usually pronounced “got poned.”

“N00b”

N00b, or “noob” in non-leetspeak, is a shortened form of "newbie." Programmers and hackers started calling people “newbies” around the same time that they started “owning” each others' systems. And like “own,” the word newbie evolved into noob and n00b.   

The new spellings are specifically derogatory. Being a “newb” simply means that you're new at something, which is perfectly fine in and of itself. If someone's calling you a “n00b” or “noob,” however, that usually means that they think you're not only new or unskilled but also disrespectfully content to be ignorant.

Haxor

Like the first leetspeak words, "haxor" expresses the speaker's claim to the hacking community. It literally means “hacker” or even “to hack.” 

The term "haxor" usually refers to a particularly advanced hacker (or haxor) and may even be used in reference to leetspeak itself. For example, “that haxor always types haxor.”

Leetspeak Out in the World

Even now, leetspeak continues to evolve and make its way into new corners of our perpetually connected society. Google even uses it to communicate with members of the general public, but with an insider nod to hacker culture.

Google's Bug Bounty

The Google Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP), known colloquially as its “bug bounty,” offers rewards to users who can identify and draw Google's attention to security vulnerabilities that can compromise user data. 

If a user finds such a vulnerability in a qualifying Google site, the specifics of which are detailed on the VRP website, Google will offer a financial reward. Reward amounts range from $100 to $31,337. Remove the comma and the dollar sign from that maximum amount and you have “31337.” 

Or, in non-leetspeak, "eleet."

Hacker Movies

Hacker culture even has its own filmography. A quick Google search for “hacker movies” will give you lists of what dozens of people believe to be the best. Popular titles include:

• Untraceable (2008) 

• The Italian Job (2003) 

• The Matrix (1999) 

• Hackers (1995)

One recent example is the movie adaptation of the novel Ready Player One, the story of one gamer's search for the industry's biggest “Easter egg.” The book and the movie both include characters with leetspeak names.

These characters are employees of the big bad corporation, IOI. They are known as the “suxorzs,” or the “sux0rz.” The word is a leetspeak translation of “sixers,” a nickname given because of their avatar names are also their six-digit employee numbers. It is also the leetspeak term for “this sucks.”

Leetspeak and You

Some people take to leetspeak like a natural second language. These are the people who might go on to pursue a career in hacking – and yes, it is possible. Even legal.

The first step is training in cybersecurity and penetration testing. Through professionally designed courses, like those offered by Alpine Security, you can learn the techniques that hackers – sorry, haxors – use to access today's systems.    

Go ahead - build a career that will let you pwn the h4x0rs.        
                  

Alpine Security Takes On Medical Device Hacking with Medical Device Penetration Testing Services

Many drug infusion pumps are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

In a move that calls attention to an alarming trend in the world of computer hacking, penetration testing company Alpine Security has announced its intention to focus on cybersecurity for medical devices. These devices are among the latest targets of Alpine's expert cybersecurity team, a group of extensively trained professionals who carry some of the industry's most advanced certifications. These professionals are now working with hospitals, device manufacturing companies, and patient advocacy organizations to keep people safe from hackers that could put their health and lives at risk.

Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, doctors can now monitor patients' vital signs and track treatment with unprecedented convenience and accuracy. However, because this technology is so new and still lacks many of the safeguards embedded in older technology, these advances also mean that a patient's private information – and their vital signs themselves – can fall into the hands of hackers.

In 2017, a group of researchers were able to secure equipment that intercepted radio frequency signals from cardiac devices. The researchers showed that they could reprogram those devices to drain the power from the device and even change the patient's own heartbeat remotely. In response, the FDA recalled nearly half a million pacemakers.

The FDA has since cracked down on the security of “smart” medical devices, and providers have taken much of the weight. According to one FDA representative, “Healthcare Delivery Organizations (HDOs) are responsible for implementing devices on their networks and may need to patch or change devices and/or supporting infrastructure to reduce security risks.” This places a major burden on HDOs, which may not have the technological expertise to make the kind of evaluations and adjustments that this responsibility demands.

Alpine has responded to this urgent situation by applying its extensive cybersecurity knowledge and medical device penetration testing capabilities to where it matters most – patient safety. Its skilled team can identify the precise location of network and device weaknesses, getting to them before hackers can.

“Hospitals now have 10-15 networked medical devices per bed. Many devices that monitor vital functions or deliver medication have critical vulnerabilities. It is simply a matter of time before we have a major attack with catastrophic and fatal consequences.” – Christian Espinosa, Alpine Security CEO

In addition to its work with HDOs and device manufacturers, the company has offered its sponsorship to the Archimedes Medical Device Security 101 Conference, to be held in January of 2019 in Orlando, Florida. The conference will be a space where designers and users of networked devices can discuss the most pressing security threats in their industry, and where they can develop actionable solutions.

About Alpine Security

Alpine Security is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that evaluates and addresses cybersecurity risks in networks and systems across multiple industries including healthcare. Committed to staying one step ahead of today's most savvy hackers, Alpine uses state-of-the-art methods and offer every type of penetration test. Alpine is particularly experienced in optimizing the cybersecurity of network-enabled medical devices.

Top Penetration Testing Certifications

Penetration testing, also known as pen testing, is an ethical hacking tactic that helps companies protect themselves. Penetration testers try to break into clients' digital systems to find weaknesses before a black hat hacker does. This is a growing field as companies seek to prevent the high profile data breaches that have happened in recent years. The top penetration testing certifications can help you get into this field.

Top Penetration Testing Certifications

CEH - Certified Ethical Hacker Certification

Entry Level, 4 Hour Multiple Choice Exam With 125 Questions, Optional 6 Hour Practical Exam

The Certified Ethical Hacker Certification is recognized the world over as a standard for ethical hackers. You will need to know about the latest hacking and malware tactics to help your future clients prevent security breaches to pass this certification. The course offered by Alpine Security will not only prepare you for the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker Exam, but we also guarantee you will pass the exam. The four hour test has 125 questions, and establishes your knowledge of the topic at hand. After you receive that certification, take the 6 hour practical exam to show  you really know your stuff.

GPEN

Entry Level, 3 Hour Exam with 82-115 Multiple Choice Questions

GIAC's (Global Information Assurance Certification) GPEN certification is a simple proctored exam with multiple choice questions that takes place over three hours. This test might seem easy compared to the days long practical tests offered by other companies, but the questions cover a range of topics. The proctored test covers not only technical questions about ethical hacking and penetration testing, but also legal topics as they relate to pen testing and other non-technical questions.

CPT - Certified Penetration Tester

Entry Level, 2 Hour Multiple Choice Exam With 50 Questions, Practical Exam (30 Days to Complete)

The CPT Certification is from the IACRB - the Information Assurance Certification Review Board. This is a flexible exam that is proctored both in different locations around the world, or a proctor can come to you as long as you have a group of 10 people who wish to take the text. It tests your knowledge of penetration testing in general, and specifically Windows, Unix & Linux vulnerabilities, wireless security and web application exploits among other things. The exam is multiple choice and as long as you score 70% or better, you will pass. This certification is only valid for four years due to the fact that technology changes so quickly, so if you get this one, make sure you stay current with it. Luckily, getting re-certified is completely free.

PenTest+

Intermediate, 2.75 Hour Long Test with up to 85 Practical & Multiple Choice Questions

PenTest+ is one of the certificates offered by CompTIA, a "vendor-neutral" IT certification organization. The tests take place a Pearson VUE testing centers, which are heavily controlled computer based centers. This exam is generally considered an intermediate exam that tests your ability to assess weaknesses in a system and your ability to suggest strategies to ameliorate weaknesses, with both test questions and a practical portion. Prepare for this exam with Alpine Security's PenTest+ penetration testing training course, which comes with an exam pass guarantee.

ECSA - EC Council Certified Security Analyst

Intermediate, 4 Hour Multiple Choice Exam & 12 Hour Practical Exam

The EC Security Council is one of the top certification organizations in the penetration testing industry, and this is their moderate test. They have created several certifications to ensure stability and competence across the industry. There are two exams for this certification. First, there is a four hour multiple choice test with 150 questions. The other exam is a 12 hour test that proves your practical penetration testing skills. As part of the exam, you will be given an actual organization's network to work with. Throughout the 12 hours, you must demonstrate your knowledge of network scans, vulnerability analysis and other important facets of a penetration test. Alpine Security's ECSA ethical hacking training course will prepare you for both tests and the cost of the exam is included with access to the class.

CEPT - Certified Expert Penetration Tester

Advanced, 2 Hour Exam with 50 Multiple Choice Questions, Practical Exam (30 Days to Complete)

The Certified Expert Penetration Tester is an advanced exam from the IACRB. This test shows your ability to manipulate shellcode and exploit code, perform reverse engineering tasks and other advanced penetration testing techniques. It is similar to the CPT exam in that it is only valid for four years, and it is a multiple choice test. This one has 50 questions administered over 2 hours.

LPT - Licensed Penetration Tester

Advanced, 18 Hour Practical Exam

LPT is the most advanced certificate offered by the EC Security Council. Those with this certificate are typically considered experts in the field. The LPT practical exam is a whopping 18 hours long. Alpine Security's APT (Advanced Penetration Testing) course will prepare you to pass the rigorous test, which is considered by some industry experts to be one of the most challenging test of its kind. 

OSCP - Offensive Security Certified Professional

Advanced, 24 Hour Practical Exam

Offensive Security is an IT certification company that focuses on Penetration Certificates. The exam consists of a real world situation that you have 24 hours to examine. The test measures your ability to gather information about the network, and then submit a detailed report with notes and screenshots to back up your findings. The test rewards points based on the difficulty of vulnerabilities you find, and their level of access. It's a tough practical exam but having this certification is definitely worth losing a night of sleep over if you want to become a successful penetration tester.

OSCE - Offensive Security Certified Expert

Advanced, 48 Hour Practical Exam

The OSCE exam is a doozy. It takes place over 48 hours and is an advanced certificate offered by Offensive Security. This test will really challenge you and prove that you are ready to do good work in the real world. The exam is tiring, but will show via practical methods that you know how to evade anti-virus software, use creative problem solving skills and identify vulnerabilities that might be hard for a lesser qualified ethical hacker to find. Stock up on coffee and get ready for one of the most rigorous tests in the industry.

Penetration Testing Career Paths

Any of these certificates will help you get started on the ethical hacker career path. If you're a beginner in the field, try starting with some of the easier ones and then work your way up to the ones that make you lose sleep for a day or two and prove that you're an expert. Keep in mind that while any certification is a positive addition to your resume, employers tend to favor practical certifications that show you truly know your stuff and can work under pressure. Sign up for any of Alpine Security's certification preparation courses to make sure you pass!

It is well known that careers in tech are a great path that could lead to a stable income and a thriving job history. Entry level penetration testers with some cybersecurity experience can start out at around $50,000 per year, which is a great starting salary, while the median salary for the field is about $82,000. Those later on in their careers will typically earn closer to $100,000 per year.

The career path of a penetration tester generally follows other IT and tech careers. You may start out in general IT, but then decide to specialize in pen testing by getting one of the aforementioned ethical hacking certifications, and work your way up to becoming a junior ethical hacker or penetration tester. Once you have proven yourself at that job, you can move into a more senior position involving challenging projects or managing those with less experience than you. Getting any of the previously described certifications can help you move onto the next step in your penetration testing career whether your title is penetration tester, vulnerability tester, security analyst or one of the many other titles in this exciting and relevant field.

The History of Penetration Testing

Penetration testing, or “ethical hacking,” is a method of exposing and purposefully exploiting the security vulnerabilities of a company's systems.  Unlike security tests that use automated programs to identify these vulnerabilities, penetration testing requires highly trained specialists to analyze the system, find its weaknesses, and use them to access protected information.

The human element of penetration testing is the most important. While a computer program can only perform the tasks with which it has been programmed, a human being can analyze new information and think of solutions that haven't been thought of before. What's more, a human is able to want – to feel a drive and a motivation that fuels the search for a way in.

Penetration Testing History - A Timeline

The concept of penetration testing has been around since human beings first began trying to understand their enemies' thought processes. Ancient armies all over the world conducted mock battles and games to figure out how other armies might undermine their strategies or get around their forces. This continued for centuries upon centuries until, inevitably, the tech world got in on the act.

The Tiger Teams

Penetration testing first became a concept in the 1960s. The burgeoning tech industry realized then that having multiple users on one system, as had become the norm, posed an inherent risk to the system's security. 

This realization gave rise to what became known as “Tiger Teams.” Unsurprisingly, the first of these worked for the government and military. In 1971, the US Air Force ordered security testing of time-shared computer systems.

The 1980s

In 1984, the US Navy got in on the ethical hacking action when a team of Navy Seals worked to evaluate how easily terrorists could access different naval bases. Around the same time, the US government was starting to come down on illegal hackers. One result of this process was the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which specified that particular ethical hacking techniques were only allowed under a contract between hacker and client organization.

The 1990s

As hacking became more advanced, so did penetration testing.  In 1995, Dan Farmer of Sun Microsystems and Wietse Venema of the Eindhoven University of Technology released a paper entitled “Improving the Security of Your Site by Breaking Into It.”   

Farmer and Venema described the emergence of the “uebercracker,” a hacker who had evolved beyond the ordinary and had learned to develop his own hacking programs. This person can discover bugs in the most advanced security systems and can get in and out of a system without leaving a trace. They showed rather than told the importance of a system owner's looking at his or her own system in the way a hacker might, thus laying the groundwork for contemporary penetration testing.    
In the same year, John Patrick of IBM termed this process “ethical hacking.”

The 2000s

After the turn of the new millennium, penetration testing finally began to solidify as a discipline. In 2003, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) published its Testing Guide, which delineated the industry's first set of best practices. Six years later, the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) offered providers of penetration testing services with a set of common practices.

...And Today

In 2013, calculations revealed that spending on enterprise security had exceeded $6 billion. Skilled ethical hackers now have a marketplace that desperately needs what they are able to do, so long as employers continue to realize how important it is to stay secure against the smartest attackers.

Why Penetration Testing Matters

Systems and software are always changing, and new security protocols are evolving all the time. But a security system's advanced nature doesn't make it invulnerable; it just means that the system can now guard against attack types that have already happened.   

Hackers are just as innovative and just as committed to effectiveness as the people who develop security systems. Companies need penetration testing to approach systems with this same determination and skill but without the intent to do actual harm to the organization.

Know Thine Enemy

Now that “data breach” has become a household term, threat detection, response, and prevention systems have become more in-depth across multiple industries. What is still missing from many such systems, however, is a specific knowledge of what these threats look like.  We don't know how to make our systems stronger if we don't know where the weaknesses are. 

This is where penetration testing comes in. By running simulated attacks and figuring out how a smart hacker could bypass existing security protocol, an organization can identify what parts of the system need strengthening, as well as how to respond effectively if a hacker does break through those barriers.

Identify the Real Threats

You may have heard about a certain attack vector or sequence of attack vectors. It might be possible to take that rumor as gospel and develop protections against those vectors, but who's to say that the actual threat might come from a different vector? Or even a different sequence of the same vectors? 

An ethical hacker can check on the sequence that a company feels is most threatening and either

1. pinpoint where the threat is, or 

2. determine that you should be more worried about a different vector entirely.

The same ethical hacker can also take a look at vulnerabilities that the company thought were not as threatening and figure out if a traditional hacker could combine them in a way that accesses the system.

Identify Cause and Effect

Penetration testing can help a company not only to identify how a hacker might access the system but also to see what the impacts could be on business operations. This information is invaluable to the development of a company's threat response and prevention strategy.

Penetration Testing Risks and Benefits

No process is perfect, and penetration testing does have its risks.  Most of the risks, however, come from poorly conducted ethical hacking.

Readiness for Tests, Not Attacks

It's great for staff members to feel safe, but a company doesn't want them to get complacent. If their supervisor announces that they are doing penetration testing, the staff might fall into the trap of preparing for the test and then feeling overly secure when they pass. 

The company could get around this by offering unannounced pen testing. These kinds of tests are only on the radar of upper management, so they get a better sense of how prepared a security staff actually is.

Potential Damage to a System

If a penetration testing professional doesn't have the proper training and experience, his or her attempts to access a system could cause the same damage as an actual attack. This includes:

• sensitive data becoming compromised 

• servers crashing 

• systems becoming corrupted

These risks are also present if an ethical hacker isn't actually ethical at all. These people do exist, so companies have to be careful and hire only credentialed professional penetration testers.

Learn about the 7 Common Mistakes made when choosing a penetration testing company.

Start a Career in Penetration Testing

If you'd like to be one of the people that companies trust to perform penetration testing services, your first step is to pursue penetration testing training and secure an industry certification.

A good place to start is the CompTIA PenTest+ Certification. In preparing for this exam through Alpine Security, you can develop a strong working knowledge of ethical hacking. You will also build the management skills that you need to help companies not only identify their vulnerabilities but also strengthen weak areas.  By studying the exploitation of multiple environments, from traditional desktop to the cloud, you can become the kind of professional that is truly in demand among security-conscious companies.

Alpine Security also offers training for the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential. The CEH certification exam is the most comprehensive in the industry, covering the 18 domains and 270 technologies that today's savvy hacker might use.   You learn more than 2,200 popular hacking tools and experience in-depth attack situations in Alpine's state of the art simulation labs.

Both programs enable you to learn from working professionals who are in touch with the latest methods and concepts in ethical hacking. Each course includes an exam pass guarantee and an exam voucher so that you can be confident that you are getting skills that will truly prepare you for a career in ethical hacking. Don't put that career on hold – contact an Alpine representative today. 

PenTest+ vs CEH Certifications: What's the Difference?

There are 20 million IT professionals worldwide, many of them with aspirations of becoming an ethical hacker.

In order to be marketable, or keep up with your company's demands, it is necessary to continue your training. This can be in the form of classes or studying for and taking tests.

The CEH Certification, or Certified Ethical Hacker Certification, is a certification that objectively tells employers you know how to hack computers, especially if you take the CEH Practical Exam. This is important for companies who are unaware of their vulnerabilities. After passing this exam, you will often get hired to find and fix security issues. Consider Alpine Security’s CEH Training to help you get CEH certified.

CompTIA's PenTest+ is also an exam that certifies you have the necessary skills to work as an ethical hacker. This exam, however, is newer and aims to make up for what the CEH certification lacks. It was launched in the summer of 2018. Thus, many IT professionals are wondering if they, or their staff, should take this test instead. The CEHv10 Practical makes the CEH a “practical” certification now though, but the Practical is not required to become CEH certified. Like Alpine’s CEH course, Alpine Security’s PenTest+ course is taught by real-world, expert penetration testers.

Read on to find out how the tests differ and which one is right for you.

Who Can Take the Exams?

Both exams have a recommended prerequisite for test takers.

The CEH certificate requires that you either prepare for the exam with a certified online training course or in person. If you would like to bypass this requirement, you must submit an employer letter stating that you have worked in information security for at least two years.

If you lack this experience, you can contact E-Council who supplies the test. You can submit your educational background, and they can assess your eligibility individually. Many individuals who have recently graduated with degrees in information security or technology will be eligible to take the test immediately.

The CompTIA PenTest+ does not have any required prerequisites to take the test, but they do recommend a few things.

Firstly, they recommend that you have 3-4 years of experience in information security. You do not have to take any tests before this one, but they do recommend you take the CompTIA Security+ test before the PenTest+.

You should also have knowledge of Network+ and Security+.

How Much Does PenTest+ and CEH Certification Cost?

A CEH Certification costs $500. Additionally, most recommend that you enroll in a course that will help prepare you for the exam that costs extra. If you decide to self-study, you will pay a one time $100 fee in addition to the $500.

The CompTIA PenTest+ costs $346, independent of any extra training that you may require to pass the test. A preparation course is not included with the exam price.

What Does the CompTIA PenTest+ Show I Can Do?

The CompTIA PenTest+ shows future employers, or your current employer, that you have a broad range of skills. In addition to showing you can "ethically hack" (or find and exploit IT vulnerabilities), it also shows you know how to assess weaknesses and manage them.

A CEH certification can prepare you for penetration testing, but not a job in vulnerability assessment and management.

CompTIA PenTest+ prepares you for more job roles than the CEH certification alone. However, you may want only to become certified for specific positions.

According to CompTIA, those who have taken their PenTest+ are eligible for the following roles: security consultant, auditor, security analyst (II), vulnerability assessment analyst, application security vulnerability analyst, vulnerability tester, network security operations, penetration tester and security consultant.

The PenTest+ shows off a wider range of skill than the CEH certification, but that doesn't make it the best choice for everyone. Although the CEH certification offers fewer job role potentials, this may be fine for individuals who only want to work in that field.

What Am I Qualified to Do After Taking the CEH Certification Exam?

After taking the CEH certification exam, you will be eligible to work in several roles, most of which involve penetration testing.

Once you pass the exam, you can work as an ethical hacker, site administrator, auditor, security consultant, network security specialist and a penetration tester.

What Do the Tests Consist Of?

The CEH certification consists of 150 multiple choice questions. Test takers have four hours to complete the exam. You must take the test at an accredited testing location or online after you've taken a certified online course. In order to pass, you must score at least 70%.

The CompTIA PenTest+ consists of both hands-on simulations and a multiple choice portion.

Test takers will answer 85 multiple choice questions during the testing process.

They will also participate in performance-based simulations. These simulations will be similar to what they may experience working with a company to identify vulnerabilities in software.

The complete PenTest+ certification takes a little bit less than three hours. Candidates are scored on a scale between 100 and 900. They must score 750 to pass the exam.

One of the significant differences is that the CEH certification can be studied for and passed without much hands-on experience. While you do need hands-on experience to qualify as a self-study student, no experience is required for simply enrolling in any of the courses.

The CompTIA PenTest+ ensures that the test-taker actually has the applied ability to perform the job. The CEH certification lets the future employer know that you can take a test and pass a multiple choice exam on the topic.

Which One is Right For Me?

Whether you take the CEH certification exam or the CompTIA PenTest+ exam depends on your goals. You should speak to those employed in the field you are interested in to find out which one carries more weight in your desired field.

Keep in mind that the CompTIA PenTest+ is also relatively new, which might impact some employers currently preferring the CEH certification exam.

Instead, focus on which exam might help you in the long-term.

Either way, you will gain valuable resources and tools for your career in cybersecurity.

For more information on all things IT certification, visit our blog.

How to Perform a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment - A Step-by-Step Guide

In 2017 over 179 million confidential documents were released because of data breaches. According to a 2018 study by IBM Security and Ponemon Institute, major data breaches cost an average of $3.86 million and global ransomware damages are predicted to exceed $11.5 billion by 2019.

These are just some examples of the destruction that cyber attacks can cause.

However, cybersecurity breaches can do more than just cost your company millions of dollars. They are responsible for the loss of intellectual and proprietary data, can ruin your company reputation, erode stakeholder confidence and lead to litigation if confidential information is compromised. Data breaches give attackers a low-risk, high-reward opportunity and recent trends indicate that successful intrusions are increasing at an exponential rate. For example, between 2010 and 2017 there was a 70% increase in data breaches in healthcare industry, leading to countless HIPAA violations and consumer litigation.

As we've already shown cybersecurity attacks can happen at any time to any company and the effects can be devastating.

But what are cybersecurity attacks? And how can you prevent your company from becoming a victim?

Cybersecurity attacks are socially or politically motivated attempts to breach the security of a network. Although attacks vary in technique and sophistication, Symantec characterizes them in five distinct stages: Reconnaissance, Incursion, Discovery, Capture, and Exfiltration. Many incursions go completely undetected - in fact, notifications of major data breaches often come after compromised material has been shared on the Dark Web.

Organizational leaders must understand that comprehensive, risk-based decisions are vital to balancing the force multiplying effects of information systems with the risk of those systems being inherently vulnerable to exploitation.

If you want to prevent or reduce the likelihood of an attack, you have to risk management strategy: how your organization will frame, assess, respond to and monitor risk over time.

How Can My Organization Frame Risk?

The first step of developing a sound risk management strategy is to frame risk. During risk framing, organizations strive to understand the risk context - that is, detailing how risk decisions are made. Here, organization’s identify the following:

Risk Assumptions: How your organization currently perceives risk factors such as threats, weaknesses, loss expediencies, consequences (fines, penalties, loss of confidence), and exploit probability.

Risk Constraints: Organizations limitations, such as resources, that will impede your ability to deal with risk.

Risk Appetite: The amount of risk an organization is prepared to accept.

Risk Tolerance: The organization’s willingness to accept risk after implementation of controls and countermeasures. Note that tolerance is often defined by regulatory and legal requirements.

Priorities: The importance of core/critical business functions.

How Can My Organization use the Risk Frame to Assess Risk?

Now that your organization understands the context and details of the risk it can be assessed. Through the assessment process, your organization should a risk determination by coupling the potential impact and the likelihood that a risk will be exploited.

Risk Assessment Process

How will my organization respond to risk?

Now that your organization understands the risks and the probability of occurrence, decision makers should form a Risk Response Strategy for an organization-wide, repeatable, response to risk. There are four ways that your organization can respond to risk:

Acceptance: The risk is within the organizational risk tolerance.

Avoidance: The risk exceeds the organizational risk tolerance. Safeguards and countermeasures aren’t available or their implementation cost exceeds the expected benefit.

Mitigation: Risk is reduced through the application of controls, enhanced safety features, implementation of technical safeguards, or use of countermeasures.

Transfer: Also known as risk sharing, risk transfer occurs when organizations reassign the responsibility and liability to other entities. A great example is purchasing a flood insurance policy for a data center. It would be costly or impractical for an organization to install monitoring sensors and sump pumps below raised flooring, but it would be feasible to transfer the flood risk to an insurance company in exchange for an annual premium.

Now That My Organization is Managing Risk, How Can We Monitor it?

Risk is very dynamic and fluid and the risk environment changes hundreds, if not thousands, of times throughout the day. Now that the heavy lifting is out of the way, your organization should develop a Risk Monitoring Strategy. Your organization’s strategy should focus on program compliance, effectiveness, monitoring frequency, and how it will address changes to the internal and external environment.

The results of the monitoring efforts will likely trigger a need to amend the organization’s Risk Management Strategy. Perhaps the most beneficial quality of the Risk Management Process is it’s cyclical nature. If the process has been successfully frozen in the organization’s processes, procedures, and culture, the process can be easily repeated.

The Data Breach Upwards Trend

According to the 2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study by the Ponemon Institute, the average total cost of a data breach rose 6.4 percent this year alone. The mean time to identify the breach was 197 days and the mean time to contain it was 69 days - that’s 266 days total! 75 percent of breaches were successful because of either human error or malicious criminal attack and the majority of them could have been mitigated or eliminated through the embracement and application of Risk Management.

We can help you understand your organizational risk by performing a Vulnerability Assessment on your organization’s endpoints. After reviewing our findings, we will prepare you a Vulnerability Assessment Report detailing the tested devices, discovered vulnerabilities, and our prioritized recommendations.

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If you’re interested in developing your personnel to effectively manage your organization’s risk management program, we highly recommend the Certified Authorization Professional certification. By making your employees Risk Management Framework (RMF) experts, they will be versed in containing information and information system risks to the parameters of your organization’s threshold. Please contact us today for more information.

Alpine Security Offers EC-Council's Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO) Certification