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Cisco Certificate in Ethical Hacking

How the program works

Overview How the program works

Earn your certificate in two steps, and then keep practicing

Step 1: Complete the Cisco Networking Academy Ethical Hacker course

  • Become proficient in the art of scoping, executing, and reporting on vulnerability assessments, while recommending mitigation strategies.
  • Pass the final course exam to complete the first step toward your certificate.
  • Your next mission, if you choose to accept it—navigate to Cisco U. and select at least one Capture the Flag challenge.

Step 2: Pass at least one Cisco U. Capture the Flag challenge to earn the certificate

  • Cisco U. Capture the Flag challenges test the ethical hacking skills you learned in the course by setting up scenarios you’ll most likely see in real life.
  • You’ll need to pass one challenge to complete your Cisco Certificate in Ethical Hacking - but you don’t have to stop there.
  • Challenges are fun, quick, and we update them every 90 days, so you can keep completing new challenges and accrue more ethical hacker badges—one per challenge.

Take the required Cisco Networking Academy training

Ethical Hacker course

Become proficient in the art of scoping, executing, and reporting on vulnerability assessments, while recommending mitigation strategies. Follow an engaging gamified narrative throughout the course and get lots of practice with hands-on labs inspired by real-world scenarios.

View Ethical Hacker course details

Lock in your certificate by completing a challenge on Cisco U.

WannaCry. NotPetya. EternalBlue—these infamous cyberattacks exploited SMB vulnerabilities, causing global disruption. Join the Capture the Flag: Operation SMB Exploit challenge and learn to detect vulnerabilities in operating systems like Windows and Linux. Get hands-on experience analyzing network security from an attacker’s point of view. Dive into password cracking, attempt brute-force attacks against SSH, and enumerate SMB shares.

Explore Operation SMB Exploit on Cisco U.

Get ready to finish strong

Keep your momentum going with a community of experts and like-minded peers. They’re here for you and would love nothing more than to help you hang that certificate and polish your badges.

Visit the community discussion