Is obtaining CEH certification Useful

Question

Hi StackOverflow,

My friend and I were arguing whether having Certified Ethical Hacker certification (CEH) is useful for a developer. It would be interesting to know the opinions that StackOveflow users have on this topic.

Here is our question:

Would obtaining CEH makes a difference for a developer (a recent university graduate) when looking for employment considering that CEH is “for an individual who is usually employed with the organization and who can be trusted to undertake an attempt to penetrate networks and/or computer systems using the same methods as a hacker”?

Answer 1

I would think that, if any prospective employee saw the word 'hacker' on a CV, they'd immediately forget the word 'ethical' and bin it, greatly reducing your chances of employment.

Remember that the techs who may understand what that means (and even I thought at first it might be taking the mickey) are not the first people that see your CV. You have to navigate through the employment agency, then management and only then will your CV be seen by techs. I suspect you will fail at the first hurdle.

Answer 2

From a security industry point of view CEH is useless and every respectable security company out there is aware of that. Not that CEH got a terrible curriculum it's more about how easy to get it, there so many out there go CEH but no clue about security. But still it won't hurt, it's a tiny little plus.

As a development company I'd personally like to see CEH in a CV especially if you are going to work on security related/required software. Having CEH means you thought of security and understand what is it about. Unfortunately there so many developers out there they just code and design without thinking about security at all. CEH means at least you are not one of them. So again I think it's a nice little plus.

BTW, If a development company thinks hacker is a bad word, you better not get that job, it's bound to suck. (although Pax mentioned that it'll be a problem before a techie sees it. I understand but it shouldn't be a problem unless you after companies with big size and lots of bureaucracy)

Answer 3

The EC-Council Certified Secure Programmer might be more appropriate for a developer...

http://www.eccouncil.org/Course-Outline/ECSP.htm

Answer 4

http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/certified-ethical-hacker-credential-proves-nothing-510

'nuff said.

Answer 5

https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=9091

(yep, direct from a DEFCON forum where they ARE hackers and not some stupid commercial company claiming their certification is going to make you a hacker)

Answer 6

http://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Hacking-EC-Council/product-reviews/0972936211/ref=cm_cr_pr_redirect/175-8748153-9176517?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar#customerReviews)

(the amount of industry disdain for this so-called "hacker certification" make me laugh!)