Re: What is being a pen tester really like?



Personally, I have lots of time to explore and keep up to date with new technologies. Since I perform penetration testing mostly for IBM Bromont (Canada), most of the time, I just sneak around what admin are doing and then test what may prone vulnerability. Otherwise, some coders just pass over my office and ask to test some stuff for them or simply to teach them how and want to do (when possible).

From my point of view this is no ordinary job, it's more like a vocation and a passion then anything else. There just too much things to learn about and to be one good ethical hacker you personally need to love investing time reading about mostly anything having to do with computer science and security or what ever you need to audit (i.e. from main-frame RACF security to wireless protocols and so on).

Since corporation are giving you the opportunity to explorer there deepest secrets and critical systems an important part of the job is to keep a perfect trust relationship with the executive. The career is mainly based on your credibility and every action you take can mark the end of it.

Depending on your exact role in the penetration testing process and departmental logic you may be ask to have lots of skill in communicating findings to executive in a, mostly, none technical language and create extensive report of the assessment.

Hope this is the kind of info you waned.

Regards,

Danny Fullerton
-----------------------
Spécialiste en Sécurité TI / IT Security Specialist
Contrôles et Sécurité TI / IT Controls and Security
IBM Bromont, Québec , Canada

Chris Serafin <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit sur 2006-07-27 13:46:50 :

It's still a job

rahul.joshi2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi Guys,

I am currently a Java developer but I'm seriously thinking of
changing paths to a career in security and pen testing.

What I would like to know is what is being a pen tester really
like? I understand the functions a pen tester performs, but I would
really love to hear what it is actually like on a day-to-day basis,
on the coal face so to speak. What are the good things about the
job, and what are the bad?

Your experiences/advice would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks,

Rahul

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