Penetration testing, popularly known as pen testing, is perhaps one of the most critical aspects of any organization’s security posture. So much so that according to an article by Reuters, the pen testing market is set to touch a whopping USD 20 Billion by 2021. This signifies that organizations spend a majority of their IT-security budget on hiring qualified pen testers or buying pen testing solutions.

This article will be useful for hiring managers in IT-Security divisions as the skillset of a pen tester is very unique and often difficult to validate. For this, there are many popular credentials that help recruiters validate the skills of a pen tester while hiring and/or providing responsible positions in the security team.

What Is Pen Testing?

Penetration testing is a well-known subset representing ethical hacking methodologies. That doesn’t mean that pen testing is limited to finding vulnerabilities of an IT system and fixing the identified flaws; it is much more than that. In actual terms, pen testing is a legal way of simulating a cyberattack on a computer system, network infrastructure, or an application to search for existing vulnerabilities that can exploit the entity. It also includes looking for the strengths of a firm’s IT security to enable a complete risk assessment.

What Do Pen Testers Do?

As an experienced pen tester, you are aware of all the challenges of your job, along with the increasing demand for sound technical skills to hold onto your demanding job profile. That is why you need to possess strong technical skills and sought-after soft skills to create a credible professional profile. If you are someone aspiring to become a pen tester, then you will soon understand what these challenges can do to your career growth. In either case, it is the need of the hour that you know what is trending and in-demand among employers.

The Prima Donnas of Pen Testing:

This is perhaps the most critical aspect in pentesting industry. Weather it is the Equifax hack where millions of Americans lost their private identity data or any other popular breach, the common factors are lack of planning by teams responsible for ensuring the security architecture. In many cases, the security team leaders are found not qualified to do so.

Many organizations hire such “prima donnas” who (on paper) claim to be well versed with the security techniques but rely heavily on automation tools and preconfigured SOPs.

Part of that is also because major training and certifications either rely on old techniques or conduct exams that are not validated or, in operational terms, not proctored.

How often have you heard that training centers offer a pass on the exam without you even having to appear for it? Do you want to risk hiring a professional who flaunts a popular certification, but in-reality, has not appeared for the exam itself?

With this in mind, EC-Council, one of the leading cybersecurity credentialing bodies, has worked for years with leading pen testing organizations and has created advisory boards across continents to build a pen testing standard which is complex, comprehensive, and trustworthy. Licensed Penetration Tester or LPT (Master) is a credential that puts the professional pen tester in a real-like breach scenario, under simulated circumstances that are exactly like that of a large-scale organization having a network of networks, and most importantly, in a gruesome 18 hours test.

Here are the 7 reasons why you should consider the LPT Master to be the Master of all pen testing credentials:

1.     Specialized Knowledge in Penetration Testing - Designed for Pen Testers ONLY

More than often the internet defines penetration testing similar to ethical hacking. This representation is not only inappropriate but depicts a wrong picture in your mind. Penetration testing is a specialized form of ethical hacking techniques dedicated to finding potential vulnerabilities, fixing them, and performing a full risk assessment of an organization’s IT security. The L|PT (Master) exam evaluates you based on your pen testing skills alone. It challenges you to prove yourself as a great pen tester in a pool of good pen testers.

2.     Designed by the Best Minds of the Industry

The L|PT (Master) is designed to bring out the best in you. For that, experts of the industry with more than 25 years of experience from across the globe came together to design an exam that can test you in every aspect of penetration testing. The exam is very demanding and makes you stress on your capabilities to pen test in real-time scenarios. From advanced to even higher levels, every challenge intensifies the way you should know your pen testing concepts and techniques.

3.     Challenges You on Different Levels

As already mentioned, there are challenges in the exam, which are divided into three levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. In total, you will be facing 9 real-world challenges with three under each designed level. You will get 18 hours to complete the exam with six hours assigned to each level. With that, it is mandatory to complete a minimum of one of the three challenges from each level and in totality, five challenges to ace the exam.

4.     In Accordance with Industry Standard Methodologies

This remotely proctored exam follows open-source pen testing methodologies which include PTES, NIST800-115, PCI DSS, ISSAF, OSSTMM, and many others. These methodologies are structured to serve the industry specified requirement, while others take care of the broader aspects of pen testing. The technical aspect of L|PT (Master) is completely dedicated to industrial use.

5.     Builds Other Important Skills – Soft Skills

Report writing is one of the mandatory skills that every pen tester should possess. To develop a report, it is important that the concerned professional should have a strong grasp on his/her writing skills. That is why every challenge of your L|PT (Master) exam demands that the applicant write a report to qualify the difficult challenges of the exam. Without writing a report, no pen tester can justify his/her competency. This is the primary reason why L|PT (Master) made it compulsory for the applicants to write a full-fledged report.

6.     Widespread Industrial Recognition

This credential gives you the required exposure in a pool of pen testers. The credibility is due to the fact that it is in relevance with the real-world incidents and it represents that the credential holder is indeed capable of dealing with stressful situations within a provided deadline.

7.     Valid for Next Two Years – Showcases Your Updated Skills

The validity of L|PT (Master) credential stays for the next two years after its attainment. This validity can be renewed once the validity is over, by paying the fixed annual fees.

If you really want to become an excellent pen tester with credible recognition among the crowd of good pen testers, then be a Licensed Penetration Tester (L|PT) Master. This credential will help you to earn the trust and faith of the employers by your already proven efforts.