How To Become An Ethical Hacker In South Africa

An Ethical Hacker is a skilled professional who has excellent technical knowledge and skills and knows how to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in target systems.

What is the Attraction of an Ethical Hacking Career?

If you’re a professional who appreciates the joys of the world of computers and relishes a challenge, then a career in ethical hacking can be an enticing prospect. You get the opportunity to use your skills to break into computer systems, and you get paid good money for doing so.

What Are the Stages of a Career in Ethical Hacking?

Patience is a skill you need to cultivate if you want to embark on a career as an ethical hacker. You can’t expect to secure an exceptionally high ranking job and earn a large salary right from the beginning, but there is immense potential to achieve both in a short span of time!

skills required to become an ethical hacker in South Africa

A history of cybercrime poses an unacceptable risk for a member of a cybersecurity team. For a large organization with an astute legal team, this type of risk would represent a nonstarter.

A word to the wise then is, when looking for work as an ethical hacker, a resume that includes any work that even smells of unauthorized work or unethical behavior is a fast way to be disqualified.

Second to having the “ethical” part of this colloquial nickname covered is the need to have the “hacker” part covered as well. A candidate for an ethical hacker job must be able to demonstrate advanced cybersecurity technical skills.

To become an ethical hacker a candidate must understand networks, both wired and wireless. They must be proficient with operating systems, especially Windows and Linux. They need to understand firewalls and file systems.

Ethical hacker certifications and education

The two certifications that are specific to ethical hacking are Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP).

EC-Council describes their CEH certification is these terms: “A Certified Ethical Hacker is a skilled professional who understands and knows how to look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in target systems and uses the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker, but in a lawful and legitimate manner to assess the security posture of a target system(s).

Any number of other cybersecurity professional certifications offered by EC-Council will lend themselves toward becoming more hireable as an ethical hacker.

The successful examinee will demonstrate their ability to research the network (information gathering), identify any vulnerabilities and successfully execute attacks. This often includes modifying exploit code with the goal to compromise the systems and gain administrative access.

The candidate is expected to submit a comprehensive penetration test report, containing in-depth notes and screenshots detailing their findings. Points are awarded for each compromised host, based on their difficulty and level of access obtained.”

How much does a ethical hacker make in South Africa?

A mid-career Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) with 5-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of R600,000 based on 6 salaries.

How much do hackers make in South Africa?


A person working as an Ethical Hacker in South Africa typically earns around 28,300 ZAR per month. Salaries range from 13,900 ZAR (lowest) to 44,100 ZAR (highest). This is the average monthly salary including housing, transport, and other benefits.

Are ethical hackers in demand?

There is no shortage of ethical hacking jobs in India. As per the 2019/2020 Official Annual Cybersecurity jobs report, the demand for information security personnel will lead to an estimated 3.5 million unfilled jobs being created globally by 2021. The industry will witness a 350% growth by 2021.

What do hackers study?

Learning about Programming

A variety of software programs are now available that make hacking easier, however, if you want to know how it is done, you will definitely need to have basic knowledge about programming. This includes PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and several other programming languages.

Does Google hire ethical hackers?

A. Yes, they do hire ethical hackers for “penetration testing” which basically means that the hackers have to try and hack the software made by Google to ensure there are no security flaws.

Can you be an ethical hacker without a degree?

A degree is not a matter for ethical hacking but to become an Ethical hacker in computer firms you need a degree for that. To become an ethical hacker, there are a lot of resources and online hacking courses. A degree can never be an obstacle for a technology-loving person.

How many years does it take to become a hacker?

In sum, most ethical hackers need at least four years to gain the education, experience, and certification needed to obtain an ethical hacking job. For many of them, this process takes five years or longer.

Is it hard to be a hacker in South Africa ?

Computer security is becoming more and more advanced, and computer systems are complicated, so it is a more difficult task to attack or intrude into well-established computer networks. In this respect, hacking is more difficult and requires greater expertise compared to 20 years ago.