EC-Council teams up with STQC to deliver ethical hacking training

SRINIVASA RAO DASARI / Hyderabad

When it comes to protecting databases and networks, the strategy of attack rather than defence seems to be the mantra of the International Council of e-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council). The EC-Council is launching a number of certifications in areas like ethical hacking, e-business consultancy and different security areas; these are aimed at transforming young IT professionals into comprehensive security solutions providers. The New York-based EC-Council is a member-driven international organisation of academicians, industry representatives and professionals from the e-business domain. The council has formulated plans to spread the certification programme in India. Enthused by the success story of Hyderabad, which has attracted global majors like Microsoft and Oracle, EC-Council has chosen the city to set up its first office in the country. Currently, the council is holding discussions with the centre and several state governments (such as Andhra Pradesh) on various issues, such as, how to protect official websites and networks of defence, space, R&D and other sensitive organisations.

To launch this certification programme in the country, this US-based professional body has tied up with STQC, the accreditation authority for companies in India, which comes under the Union Ministry for Communication. This is the first certification body in the country to offer ISMS (information security management systems) certification services. With this, India has become one of the few countries outside the UK and the Netherlands to offer such accreditation certification services. The EC-Council has chosen eight locations—all metro cities, plus Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad—for offering the certification courses in association with STQC.

At present, the EC-Council is offering about six certifications—e-Business Associate, e-Business Professional, e-Business Consultant, E++ Technical Consultant, Certified Ethical Hacker, and Certified Hacking for Forensic Investigation (CHFI). The EC-Council is starting off with a certification programme in ‘Certified Ethical Hacking’ (CEH) and will offer five other courses over a period of time. This certification is being launched in Hyderabad in association with the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL). ECIL is likely to start this seven-day residential programme from this month.

“This course will be ideal for young IT professionals who have time and patience. Young professionals with security-related experience are preferred and we train them in all aspects of e-commerce. During the past ten months, EC-Council certified more than 1,000 information security professionals. In the present environment, the security aspect is not getting top priority. All system administrators are busy and don’t have time to focus on virus threats. The Council is not a vendor support organisation, but a vendor-neutral perspective organisation. The CEH course will address issues in about 21 domains such as Web services, scanning and applications, etc. The reason for starting off with only CEH is that initially we want to focus on it and besides it provides immediate results to IT organisations and creates more interest in our activities. Later on, we will expand,” Haja Mohideen, technical director, EC- Council, told Express Computer.

The Council sees good potential in the country and anticipates a good response to its certification courses. e-Business is a niche market as this segment is prone to major losses because of hacking. It expects that about 1,000 professionals will get certified in the initial stage and CEH will be a profession in the near future.

“We offer training in 32 modules and more than 300 tools. Hacking tools keep evolving continuously as new types of viruses emerge. We teach only technology and the tools can be had from the Internet. IT professionals would be taught on how to write viruses and on protecting systems and networks from hackers. We are looking at security professionals and not hardcore seniors,” Sangeetha Thomas, regional director (India operations) said.

According to the council, training would be available at an affordable cost when compared to the cost in the US. ECIL will offer the course on CEH at Rs 25,000.