The GPEN certification, GIAC Penetration Tester, is a vendor-neutral certification. Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) offers and administers the certification. The GPEN certification is globally recognized as a validation of advanced-level penetration testing skills.
Are You the Correct Candidate for GPEN Certification?
The GPEN certification is a technical certification that depicts a candidate’s knowledge of using a process-oriented approach to reporting and penetration testing. GPEN is beneficial for candidates including-
- People who are involved in doing penetration tests or security assessments.
- Ethical hackers.
- IT security auditors.
- Computer forensic investigators and incident responders.
- IT and information security experts who want to expand their knowledge about offensive security are also eligible for GPEN.
Do You Need Any Experience to Appear for the GPEN Certification Exam?
The GPEN Certification doesn’t need any specific experience. However, a candidate should have a sound knowledge of the Windows operating system, using the Windows and Linux command line. They must know about computer networking and TCP/IP protocols, and a basic understanding of cryptographic concepts is essential.
How Much Do You Earn from the GPEN Certification?
The rise of information security suggests promising career prospects for cybersecurity professionals. The BLS shows a high job increase of 32% from 2018-2028 for the related position of information security analyst and penetration tester.
PayScale states penetration testing careers as a high paying career, with salaries ranging from $57,0000-$134,000 based on experience level. PayScale data indicates that penetration testers make a median annual salary of $84,000, which is above the national mean salary of $51,960 for all professions. The salary of a GPEN certified is $100k approximately.
How Should You Prepare for the Exam?
Know about the Exam and Syllabus:
Here are the few things that you will be able to learn after covering the syllabus:
- The GPEN certification candidate uses additional methods to attack password hashes and authenticate it.
- The candidate gets to know an attack password hashes and other password parameters.
- The GPEN certification candidate will be able to enumerate users.
- The GPEN candidate knows exploitation fundamentals and demonstrates the fundamental concepts related to the pentest program’s exploitation phase.
- The GPEN certification candidate can Initial Target Scanning by conducting port, operating system, and service version scans. They can analyze the results too.
- The candidate knows how to will configure the Metasploit Framework at an intermediate level.
- The GPEN certification candidate uses exploits to move files between remote systems.
- The GPEN understands about password attack. They know the types of password attacks, formats, defenses, and the situations under which to use each password attack changes.
- The GPEN certification candidate is able to demonstrate the fundamental concepts associated with pen-testing.
- The candidate adopts and utilizes a process-oriented approach to pen-testing and reporting.
- The GPEN uses his Power Shell skills during a penetration test to demonstrate an understanding of the use of advanced Windows.
- The GPEN certification candidate understands the fundamental ideas of observation and will understand how to obtain necessary, high-level information about the target network and organization, often considered information leakage, including but not limited to technical and non-technical public contacts, IP address ranges, document formats, and support systems.
- The GPEN certification holder will use the proper technique to scan a network for potential threats.
- The GPEN certification candidate learns to conduct vulnerability scans and analyze the results.
- The candidate will be able to utilize shared web application attacks.
- The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of the use of tools and proxies to discover web application vulnerabilities.
- The GPEN demonstrates and understands how XSS and CSRF attacks work and how to conduct them.
Your knowledge in several areas will be beneficial for making an index for the GPEN certification exam. The GPEN certification exam is an open book exam. The exam covers 82-115 questions in three hours. So you will get less than two minutes to find the answer. The index will help you at the exam hall. Register with Pearson Vue, and if possible, check the center you are choosing because most Pearson Vue centers are not set up for this.
Take Official Training and Make A Study Plan:
GIAC provides official training for the GSEC exam. Official training will help you to become clear about the topics covered more quickly. A study plan will guide you on how much time and effort you need to make to complete the syllabus and create an index from it. Remember one thing the exam is an open book exam so you can take the hardcopy of books. No electronics mediums like i-pad, calculator are not allowed in the exam hall.
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Take the Official Practice Tests:
GIAC provides practice tests for GPEN certification. If you are familiar with taking practice tests, you will be very successful in managing your open book exam on the D-day. If you find the GPEN official practice tests costlier, you could avail of any other online practice tests for GPEN.
Final Words:
Penetration testers use their technical and non-technical skill sets that go a long way in guaranteeing the security setup of networks and different systems. So being a GPEN certified opens opportunities for a candidate in the cybersecurity world, as well as benefits an organization from threats.
