.webp "How Do Ethical Hacker Make Money?")
Many people ask us How Do Ethical Hackers Make Money? Or How To Earn a Living as an Ethical Hacker?
We have seen in movies that Hackers are always into their PC, hacking someone’s account or device to steal their data and earn money by doing illegal activities. But How Do Ethical Hackers Make Money in real life? Today, in this article we’ll share the truth about How Do Ethical Hackers Make Money?
But before talking about How Do Ethical Hackers Make Money, Let’s know a little bit about Ethical Hackers.
What is Ethical Hacking and Who Are They ?
When we hear the word ‘HACKER’ most of us start making an image of a shady person sitting in front of a laptop in a dark room, who is planning to destroy someone’s website or steal someone’s data. But No, it’s not like that. These kinds of work are for ‘Black Hat Hackers’.
Ethical Hackers, also known as a ‘White Hat Hacker’. An Ethical Hacker is like a good guy in the world of hacking. They help companies and people by using their skills and knowledge to find and fix security problems. They are professionals who know a lot about hacking and are really good at it.
When discussing the career of an ethical hacker, it is important to note that individuals with exceptional knowledge and skill in this field have the potential to generate revenue through various means.
Different methods through which Ethical Hackers Makes Money :-
1. BUG BOUNTY HUNTING/PROGRAM
In 2020, Ethical Hackers earned $40m (£28m) via a leading bug bounty reporting service for reporting software flaws.
This is one of the most opportunistic and main ways by which Ethical Hackers make huge money. The Bug Bounty Program is one of the great ways to make money for Ethical Hackers.
In this program, big companies, organizations, websites, and software developers offer deals and money to hackers who found bugs, vulnerabilities, etc. in their products, organizations.
There are tech giants and many companies with Bug Bounty Program and pay a good amount of money to Bounty Hunters to find bugs in their programs. Some of those companies are Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, Firefox, etc.
As a beginner, you can look for bugs in these small startups to gain knowledge, name, and experience, or else, you can dive into Google Play Store and start looking for bugs in some of their popular apps. And the good thing about this method is that the Google Play Store has started rewarding cash prizes to Hackers who find bugs in their applications.
Here are 5 Best Bug Bounty Programs for You to earn pocket money If you are looking for one:-
- Intel
- Snapchat
- GitHub
- DropBox
- Uber
2. SECURITY CONSULTING COMPANIES
After Bug Bounty Hunting, Security Consulting is another great way for Ethical Hackers to Make Money. Many companies and startups always hire Ethical Hackers to test their security systems so that they can look for any loopholes or bugs.
Companies are ready to pay bags of money to ethical hackers if they are successful in finding issues or bugs in their product or their security system. If you are a well-known and reputed hacker then the companies will call and approach you from the front to test their system, software, or products.
There are even so many black hat hackers, who started Consulting companies after coming out of prison or after leaving illegal activities behind.
One of the most famous hackers ‘KEVIN MITNICK’ is a great example of this. He was in prison for Five Years for Cyber Crimes. But after coming out of prison, he started his own company ‘Mitnick Security Consulting LLC.”, and he is Chief Hacking Officer, advisory board member of Zimperium, partner owner of ’KnowBe4’ company and is seen as one of the most respected professional hackers in the world. He has also written several book like The Art of Invisibility, The Art of Intrusion, Ghost in the wire, The Art of Deception .
3. PWN2OWN COMPETITIONS AND OTHER HACKING EVENTS
Ethical hackers compete in PWN2OWN, a hacking competition held annually at the CanSecWest security conference.
The competition challenges hackers to exploit widely-used software and hack devices from different companies to win prizes such as cash and the hacked device.
The rewards for successful exploits can be as high as $10,000 for devices and $5,000 for browsers. PWN2OWN now takes place twice a year, with the most recent competition occurring in March 2023.
Hacker wins Million dollars cash prize also, some so many hackers have won $1M+ in Hacking events. These events are covered by news channels, which means if you win the competition then apart from cash prize they’ll earn name and reputation also.
And apart from prizes and fame, you’ll meet other professional hackers who carry more experience and knowledge than you do. So, this helps them to meet new people, gain new knowledge and experience. And this will help hackers to build a strong network also.
4. FREELANCING
Now everyone must be familiar with the term “freelancing”. Yes, ethical hackers can do freelancing also. After all, ethical hacking is a desk job, not a ground job. You can do it remotely without having a 9-5. In fact, one of the best benefits of being an ethical hacker is being able to make money as a freelancer.
It is yet another source of income through which Ethical Hackers make Money. Some Hackers do freelancing as a side hustle but some are making a living from it.
As there is a lot of demand for Cybersecurity experts in the digital field, there is always a requirement for ethical hackers in a startup or a company.
TOP FREELANCING SITES where you can Earn Money as an Ethical Hacker are:- Fiverr, UpWork, Freelancer, etc.
This method is similar to the first two methods which are Bug Bounty Hunting and Consulting Company.
You can provide services like consulting companies on freelancing platforms if you are a certified ethical hacker. Or you can work as a bug bounty hunter. As an Certified Ethical Hacker, you can make at least between $10,000 and $15,000 per assignment.
5. CREATING TOOLS AND SOFTWARES
This also is a good method to earn big money for someone who has a programming background. Many Professional Hackers create tools and scripts to make work easy and fast and then they sell it. By this method, you can generate income every month because if you keep your tools and software up to date then you can easily resell them.
"Some Commonly Asked Questions on "How Do Ethical Hackers make Money?"
How much money do ethical hackers make ?
According to Survey and Reports, the average salary of an Ethical Hacker is INR 1.2 Million per annum with at least 3-5 years of experience. But this is just an average record. In some cases, Ethical Hackers are earning more than INR 18,00,000 with 1-2 years of experience or no experience.
According to Payscale.com (data and research), $ 90,000 or INR 64,06,560 per year is the current average salary of a Certified Ethical hacker
Can ethical hackers become rich or Millionaires ?
Yes, Ethical Hackers can get a huge fortune and become a millionaire too. It is not a big deal for an ethical hacker to become hella rich. One of the most common ways by which CEH became a Millionaire is the Bug Bounty Program.
In 2020, Ethical Hackers earned $40m (£28m) via a leading bug bounty reporting service for reporting software flaws.
How do hackers get paid ?
There is no fixed system through which hackers get paid because there are so many options hackers have. Some hackers are full-time bug bounty hunters, they get paid by finding vulnerabilities or bugs in software, browsers, applications, etc.
While some of them get paid for Consulting companies. Some of them are employees and work for security companies. And along with employment they earn money by working as a freelancer also.
Where i can Learn Hacking ?
Here are some of the best udemy courses listed below
1) Learn Ethical Hacking From Scratch
2) Practical Ethical Hacking - The Complete Course
3) The Complete Cyber Security Course
4) Learn Python & Ethical Hacking From Scratch
5) Website Hacking / Penetration Testing & Bug Bounty Hunting
There are many methods through which Ethical Hackers Makes Money -
Some of them are -
- Bug Bounty Program
- Consulting Companies
- PWN2OWN Competition
- Freelancing
- Creating and selling Tools and Softwares
But if you are a beginner in this field and want to earn money. So, we’ll suggest you become professional in this field first, keep learning and keep practicing after that you’ll start earning good money.
Hope you found this article helpful. If yes, then do tell us in the comments and share it with your friends to help them out.
CONCLUSION :-
Today in this article we talked about ‘How Do Ethical Hackers Make Money?’, and different methods used by Ethical Hackers to Earn A Living. There are many myths about Ethical Hackers that they earn money through illegal activities. But no, it’s not like that.
Illegal activities and cyber crimes are performed by Black Hat Hackers. Ethical Hackers aka White Hat Hackers are professional hackers who are hired by the government and many companies. They help organisations, companies to become more secure and protected.