CEH vs. CompTIA PenTest+: Thoughts

Kristoffer Marshall is a cyber defense team lead at Secure-24. He has the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) cybersecurity certification and recently earned CompTIA PenTest+. We asked him a few questions to learn more about what a cyber defense lead does, his opinion on Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) vs. PenTest+ and how IT and cybersecurity certifications have helped him get into IT and advance his career without a college degree.
1. What does a cyber defense team lead do?

A cyber defense team lead orchestrates penetration tests, identifies current and immediate threats to the organization and its clients, and is a subject matter expert on vulnerabilities.

A lot of companies simply run vulnerability scans and patch, not really knowing which vulnerabilities pose a threat. While a quarterly pen test report is normally needed for compliance reasons, conducting mandatory pen tests puts us in a position where we know what the actual threats are, rather than reviewing vulnerability reports and having a soft priority on remediating items. It’s one thing to know that a vulnerability exists, and another to know whether or not it’s easily exploitable.

Outside of testing known vulnerabilities, a large value to pen testing is to find things that current vulnerability scanning software simply cannot catch. Social engineering paired with open-source intelligence is one of the largest threats to organizations today, and no number of technological safeguards will stop adversaries from exploiting individuals. Without someone actively testing employees, the largest threat to the organization is often left in plain sight, with little to no testing or adequate training.

Pen testing actively tests not only employees, but the organization’s processes and procedures that should be in place to protect the company’s assets and operations.
More Info: jobs you can get with a+ certification

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