Important Interview Questions to Crack Interview for Ethical hacking role

Ethical hacking is among the most popular cybersecurity job roles today. From school students to graduate students and even young professionals aspiring to make a career in cybersecurity are fascinated with this role.

Not only do professionals want to enter this exciting role, but organizations are also seeking skilled ethical hackers to help them find vulnerabilities in their organization’s security systems. As predicted by Fortune Business Insights, the cybersecurity market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.8% from 2023-2030 and this huge growth also indicates increased hiring for professionals with the latest cybersecurity skills.

If you are looking to get into an ethical hacking career, then in this article we bring you some of the most frequently asked interview questions and answers and also assist you on how you can get the best ethical hacking training.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Before we jump into the top interview questions and answers for the ethical hacker’s role, it is better to first understand this cybersecurity profile for setting up a clear career goal.

An ethical hacker is an expert cybersecurity professional responsible for finding vulnerabilities in an organization’s security systems and recommending essential cybersecurity measures to rectify these vulnerabilities.

They carry out cyber-attacks on the organization's security system with proper permission and in a controlled environment that ensures that there is no misuse of data or resources. Ethical hackers are also known as white-hat hackers and their act is protective instead of destructive.

Interview Questions for Ethical Hackers

Beginner-Level Ethical Hacking Interview Questions

1. What do you understand by the term ethical hacking?

Ethical hacking is a cybersecurity effort to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities in any organization’s security system and recommending corrective measures. Ethical hackers are good hackers who perform hacking to help organizations rather than cause damage to their resources.

2. How does it differ from hacking by criminal hackers?

The criminals do hacking to gain access to data and systems to misuse them and cause damage to the organization. However, ethical hackers do hacking to inform organizations about the loopholes in their security systems.

Criminals hack systems and networks without permission but ethical hackers have prior permission and their work is monitored.

3. Can you tell me what more different types of hacking are there?

There are basically three types of hacking:

• White hat hacking – done by ethical hackers to help organizations with proper permission

• Black hat hacking – done by criminals without permission to steal data, misuse systems, etc.

• Grey hat hacking – hacking is done without permission; however, their intention is to inform vulnerabilities to organizations and receive rewards in return.

4.What tools do you use for ethical hacking?

There are many tools used for ethical hacking including:

• Nmap to scan network

• Metasploit to exploit

• Wireshark to analyze packets

• Burp suite for test web applications, and some others.

Enroll in top cybersecurity certifications to master the latest ethical hacking and cybersecurity skills.

Intermediate-Level Ethical Hacking Questions

5. Tell me about the OSI model and why it is relevant in ethical hacking

The OSI model is used to categorize network communications into various layers. Ethical hackers use it to understand vulnerabilities in networks and different attack vectors across these different layers.

6. What are the different stages of ethical hacking?

There are five important stages in ethical hacking:

• Planning and reconnaissance where the goal is defined and important information is collected

• Scanning, where vulnerability scanning tools are used to find how a target responds to intrusions

• Gain access to systems and devices by entering through weak points

• Keep the access maintained

• Analysis and WAF configuration

7. What is an exploit kit?

It refers to a malicious toolkit mostly used by cybercriminals to automate exploitations. Through this tool, they can find vulnerabilities in software and applications and exploit them. It is often used to install malware or ransomware.

Advanced-Level Ethical Hacking Interview Questions

8. What is an Advanced Persistent Threat?

APT refers to continuous cyberattacks that cybercriminals do in order to succeed in their infiltration attempts. They persistently attack the target which increases the chances of succeeding.

9. How can you detect and neutralize advanced malware?

There are various techniques that can be used to detect advanced malware. Some common techniques are behavior-based analysis, signature scanning, and anomaly detection.

They can be easily mitigated through techniques like sandboxing, network segmentation, endpoint security solutions, etc.

10. How can you secure a cloud environment from hacking?

The following steps must be followed to secure cloud environments:

• Use proper encryption technology

• Employ strong access control measures

• Implement two-factor or multifactor authentication

• Segment networks

• Automate threat monitoring and detection using advanced AI and machine learning

• Providing cybersecurity training to all the employees in the organization for best cybersecurity practices.

Master ethical hacking skills with top ethical hacking training courses and cybersecurity certifications to stand out from the crowd and increase your chances of hiring.

Conclusion

So, these are some of the top interview questions for aspirants looking to crack the role of ethical hacking. Remember, these are not the only questions you must prepare. The field of cybersecurity and ethical hacking is huge. You need to be thorough with your cybersecurity and ethical hacking skills and knowledge to successfully all sorts of interview questions and ace the interview. Apart from mastering these questions, keep your credentials right. Enroll in cybersecurity certifications and ethical hacking certifications to master this domain in cybersecurity now.