What is the Salary of an Ethical Hacker in India

The Cyber Security sector is going through an interesting phase of growth with an immense requirement of Cyber Security professionals like Ethical Hackers, Penetration Testers, Security Analysts, Chief Security Officer and many other designations related to this field. As per the estimation of the Ministry of Information Technology of India, the country would require 500,000 professionals to sustain its internet economy by the end of 2015. As this need could not be fulfilled completely, this increased the scope of ethical hacking in India.

We would here discuss different survey reports released indicating the average salary of an ethical hacker in India.

How it started

In recent years, many reports have signaled an excellent growth in the IT security sector along with increasing incidents of malicious hacking or threats. As per the records of CERT (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), a staggering number of 32,323 websites were hacked in 2014. India ranked on #2 in the list of most targeted nations in terms of cases related to cybercrime. Many organizations that would use third-party services to secure their systems have started their own bug bounty platforms which have opened new doors of opportunities for career seekers in companies of different business verticals. Google has also put many efforts to increase awareness of data hacks in organizations in multiple ways.

The situation of ethical hacking has become better than before as career seekers are passionately learning about it and earning good salaries.

Analysis reports on salaries of Ethical Hackers

• As per a report of CISO, the annual average salary of an ethical hacker is Rs. 570,000. This survey included the highest number of professionals based in Bangalore remarkably 20.5 percent, which was followed by another prominent industrial zone of Delhi NCR with 20.3 percent participators.
• Telecom and communications sector was the highest paying sector with an average annual salary of Rs. 11.75 lacs.
• Banking and financial institutions were paying the second-highest average pay of Rs. 10.52 lacs. The highest average salary was recorded at Rs. 860,000 per annum in Delhi NCR.

However, this should not be considered the most precise count as different institutions give numbers as per their own observation algorithms.

Why there are variations in stats

Another report released by NASSCOM indicated an increased yearly need for 77,000 ethical hackers who would also have pursued an Ethical Hacking Course Certification which reflects the high possibilities of rewarding and promising career opportunities in this field. An ethical hacker possesses a good knowledge of different hacking techniques and platforms to detect any type of vulnerability or possible threat.

Initial surveys on average annual salaries of ethical hackers in India also shown a different stat of Rs. 780,000 per year. From a complete fresher to those with up to two years of experience, the annual average salary was Rs. 285,000, as indicated by CISO.

In the end

As the field of IT security become more significant due to an exceptional timely rise in digital penetration incidents, the professional values of ethical hacking professionals have also transformed exceptionally in recent years. Ethical hackers have helped organizations to remain protected against malicious cyber activities.

With the increasing pace of attacks, there would be a drastic need for technological assets and a large workforce in the field of ethical hacking. This is also the reason why you can observe a huge difference in pay scales of an Ethical hacker and an IT professional in India. For fresher the number may differ abruptly as there are many organizations that would hire trainees where they pay them low stipends, on the other hand, there are also organizations that pay well on the basis of revenues and status of the establishment.