Fighting online crime
IMAGINE an intense cyber career with a huge social responsibility of keeping society and the economy safe as the world expands more into online realms. That is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), whose job is to protect others against computer and internet crimes.
CEH training begins right after students finish SPM. Within two years and four months, they exit with a diploma-level qualification bolstered with globally recognised certifications.
“The main mission of a CEH is to run penetration tests on firewall and computer security systems to find weaknesses in the defenses so that they can be fixed,” explained the School of Engineering, Computing and Built Environment head for KDU Penang University College (KDU Penang) Dr Yeap Gik Hong.
The CEH’s credentials are endorsed by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), a cyber organisation founded by Ray Javisi after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.
Currently, the EC-Council has certified about 200,000 computer security professionals worldwide.
In Malaysia, Dr Yeap said RM5bil will be changing hands online this year and the figure is growing exponentially.
“With that much money floating in Malaysian cyberspace, the need for a large force of CEH is immense.
“Our university college works closely with large corporations and from the industry feedback we regularly collect, the need for such cybersecurity experts is urgent,” he said.
The training is embedded into KDU Penang’s Diploma in Computer Studies and Diploma in Games Technology.
Presently, there are only two CEH exam centres in the country: KDU Penang and the EC-Council Examination Centre in Putrajaya.
These diplomas come with four professional certifications that make diploma students industry-ready once they leave campus.
Aside from the CEH credentials, students are also certified by Oracle University as database systems and Java programming professionals and as Microsoft Technical Assistants.
“This makes it possible for our diploma students to set off on a lucrative career right after they graduate,” Dr Yeap said.
As CEH, they are even more in demand – banks can pay salaries up to RM5,000 a month due to the sensitive nature of their work.
More than 90% of KDU Penang’s computing diploma students proceed to earn their bachelor’s degree.
The April and June intakes for KDU Penang’s computing diploma courses have begun.