Today EC-Council announced it has inducted 10 Indian cybersecurity professionals into its 2023 Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) Hall of Fame. Inductees are chosen based on a combination of their C|EH certification exam scores and their industry accomplishments within a wide range of public and private sector cybersecurity roles. The announcement comes on the heels of a year that saw a marked uptick in cybercrime worldwide and a renewed focus on ensuring a ready cybersecurity workforce to protect Indian businesses and government agencies.
CEH Hall of Fame Report 2023
“As Prime Minister Modi has said, India’s IT sector is our great strength, and cybersecurity has become a matter of national security. It is critical to the nation’s growth and well-being that we can protect our businesses and government agencies,” said Jay Bavisi, Founder and CEO of EC-Council. “The gold standard Certified Ethical Hacker training provides a unique skillset, actively preparing Certificate holders to think like hackers and find critical vulnerabilities. The 10 Indian ethical hackers inducted this year represent some of the globe’s top cybersecurity talent, and this induction not only honours them but also serves as a cardinal direction for others who similarly feel called to serve the nation in this way.”
The C|EH program is widely recognised for its comprehensive curriculum, which is one of the reasons ethical hacker skills have broad applications across a wide range of organisations. More than 88% of the Hall of Fame inductees consider the C|EH program to have the most comprehensive curriculum in the industry. There are many stories of how C|EH training directly pertains to on-the-job challenges.
A critical aspect of being prepared to handle emerging cybersecurity threats is having actual experience working with them. One of the key ingredients in the C|EH training curriculum is the cyber lab, which gives participants a way to safely gain hands-on experience that closely parallels the high-stakes experiences of cybersecurity professionals engaged in active combat.
“In a security testing project, I demonstrated the issues in charging stations to cloud connectivity through an MITM attack and manipulation of health and consumption data. In another project for train control systems, I demonstrated the replay attacks and takeovers of autonomous trains for the government of India,” said Hall of Fame inductee Shiv Kataria, a Security Architect working at Siemens.
The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving, with new challenges presented by cloud, robotics, mobile, and AI technologies. Ransomware alone grew by 41% compared to the year prior, according to a 2022 IBM study.
The impact of the C|EH training has proven to yield tangible, quantifiable benefits to organisations that employ ethical hackers. “There was a time when our team was unable to locate a criminal who was using the fake email address of a very powerful person to cheat and draw money from innocent people. Using OSINT skills as well using the Burpsuite technique I learned during the C|EH program, I was able to intercept a request, so we were able to track him down and to arrest him. I did this within a few hours,” said Hall of Fame inductee Vishal Sheelwant, a Security Analyst working at Maharashtra Cyber Digital Crime Unit.
Indeed, 97% of Hall of Fame inductees found the C|EH labs highly effective at simulating real-world threat scenarios, and 92% found that their C|EH training helped them feel more confident in their work.
“I performed 30+ bank cybersecurity audits in 1 year and 10 months along with the Reserve Bank of India, and I am proud to serve the nation. In 2017, I had a big role in protecting the organisation’s critical systems and servers from a WannaCry ransomware attack,” said Hall of Fame inductee Swapnil Sonawne, a Manager and Payment Systems/Cybersecurity Auditor working at Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Many of the inductees spoke about the impact that their C|EH accreditation had on their careers. 97% said they chose the C|EH at least partly because the certification would facilitate career growth. More than half of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees were able to point to a promotion received after earning their C|EH certificate.
To view the full report, including all survey data and references, see Leading the Ethical Hacking Community in 2023: The 2023 C|EH Hall of Fame Annual Report.
About EC-Council
Founded in 2001 in response to 9/11, EC-Council invented the Certified Ethical Hacker. EC-Council’s mission is to provide training and certifications for both aspiring and experienced cybersecurity professionals to help keep corporations, government agencies and others who employ them safe from attack.
Today, EC-Council offers 200 different training programs, certifications, and degrees in everything from Digital Forensic Investigation and Security Analysis to Threat Intelligence and Information Security. An ISO/IEC 17024 Accredited Organisation recognised under the U.S. Defense Department Directive 8140/8570 and many other authoritative cybersecurity bodies worldwide, the company has certified 50,000 professionals across the globe. Trusted by seven of the Fortune 10, half of the Fortune 100, and the intelligence communities of 140 nations, EC-Council is the gold standard in cybersecurity education and certification.
A truly global organisation with a driving belief in bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion to the modern cybersecurity workforce, EC-Council maintains 11 offices in the U.S., the U.K., India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.The company can be reached online at www.eccouncil.org.
