How to hire a professional hacker

Protecting your business is something you cannot afford to take lightly. However, with DDoS attacks and phishing attacks on the rise, it may be advantageous to have some coverage on your side. The ethical hacker called a “white hat” sometimes has many of the same skills as criminal hackers, except that they use them to spot and fix weaknesses in internet infrastructure instead of exploiting them. You must write a clearly defined mission statement outlining your objectives if you are looking to hire an ethical hacker. Candidates may then be found through official certification programs or online hacker markets.

• Consider the risks associated with not protecting yourself. 

A typical data breach costs about $4 million to secure and clean up.

Consider hiring a white hat as a kind of insurance policy. Whatever they charge for their services, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.

• Establish a cybersecurity strategy for your company.

There is more to internet defense than simply deciding that you need to beef them up. Instead, describe precisely what you want to achieve by hiring an outside expert in your mission statement. This way, neither you nor your candidate will be in the dark about what the future holds.

• Ensure that your wages are competitive.

Getting an ethical hacker on your side is a wise decision, but it doesn’t come cheap. A typical white hat earns $70,000 or more per year, according to PayScale. Remember to keep in mind that the work they will be doing is actually worth the fee that they ask for. Investments like this are seldom worth skipping, so don’t hesitate to make them.

• Hire a hacker if you can.

Keeping a white hat full-time on your IT staff may not be necessary. Instead, specify in your objectives statement that you are looking for a consultant to oversee a major project, such as a penetration test or software rewrite. As a result, you won’t have to pay them a continuous salary, but rather a one-time retainer.

• Hire candidates who have Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certifications.

 EC-Council (i.e., the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants) has created a special certification program to train hackers and assist them with finding jobs due to the increasing demand for ethical hackers. By interviewing security experts who hold CEH certifications, you can be sure they are the real deal instead of someone who learned their craft in a basement.

• Check out an online marketplace for ethical hackers. 

Visit sites like Cyberexploits to see some of the listings. Similar to job search platforms like Monster and Indeed, these websites compile entries from hackers looking for work. For employers accustomed to a more traditional hiring process, this may be the most intuitive process.

• You should conduct a thorough background check.

 Before considering hiring your candidates, it will be necessary to conduct thorough background checks. Consider sending their information to HR or to an outside organization to see what they find. You should pay special attention to any criminal activity they have been involved in, especially online offenses.

If a background check turns up any criminal behavior, it should be a red flag (and probably grounds for disqualification).

A working relationship is built on trust. Therefore, any employee you cannot trust is unfit for your company, regardless of their experience level.

• Conduct an in-depth interview with your candidate. 

The next step in the process is to interview your prospect if they pass their background check. Specifically asking questions such as, “how did you get involved in ethical hacking?”, “have you ever worked for anyone else?”, “what types of tools do you use to detect and neutralize threats?” and “test us to defend our system from an external penetration attack.”

• Meet the applicant personally rather than over the phone or by email so that you can get a true sense of their character.
• Consider scheduling a follow-up interview with a member of the management team if you have any remaining concerns.

• Make sure your cybersecurity expert works closely with your development team.

It is more important for your IT team to prevent cyberattacks in the future than to work on recovering from them. In the process of collaborating with you, the people creating your business’s online content will learn techniques for outsmarting would-be scammers, as well as safer coding practices.

Even though hiring an ethical hacker to validate every new feature slows down the development process a little, the new, superior security features they create are worth it.

• Become familiar with the threats to your business posed by cybersecurity. 

You should utilize your white hat’s wealth of knowledge and learn about the types of tactics hackers typically employ. By understanding how attacks on the internet are planned and executed, you can spot them before they happen.

• Regularly, ask your consultant to provide you with a detailed report on what they’ve found. With the help of your IT team, you can analyze their findings and brush up.
• Instead of just letting your hired hacker do their thing without question, encourage them to explain what they’re doing.