What is Ethical Hacking – Some Important Issues Covered

What is Ethical Hacking – Some Important Issues Covered

It is not an unusual topic which I am going to discuss with my readers.

Internet is full of write-ups about this topic. Yes, it is ethical hacking.

I got the inspiration to write about this topic when on entering my password many times I could not reach to the FB home page. Is my password “hacked”. This was the very first question that came in my mind. But then I thought how it can be hacked when the multinational technology giant is spending so much on its security. What I mean to say is?

If someone is investing so much amount of money in research and development generally it cannot compromise with the security of their systems.

At this point we need to understand who a hacker is.

A hacker is someone who uses programming skills to get illegal access to a computer network or file. There are different hacking specialists. The one who knows an algorithm very well is an algorithm hacker. A system hacker is very good at designing and maintenance of operating systems. The most interesting one is “password hacker” who is proficient in finding out someone else’s password.

A hacker can be paid or unpaid but companies are hiring “ethical hackers” at fat salary who can save their system from getting cracked. An ethical hacker is a computer programming expert or at least intelligent enough to understand the loop holes of a system. He is supposed to help a company or individual in finding out the weak points in the security of any network or system. An ethical hacker researches well, finds the weak points and tell them to the organizations top management. Then the higher authorities use that information to strengthen their system’s security.

If you are an ethical hacker then you are expected to obey the following rules:

Make sure you have got the written consent from the organization to explore the network.

You have got a great respect for the privacy of the company or individual for which you are working. That means you are just interested in the security issues.

If you have found any weakness you are going to report it to the company itself not to someone else. Here the “company” could be software developer or hardware manufacturer which is not aware of the glitch in their software or hardware.

Thus, we see that an ethical hacker is a computer expert who attacks a security system with the consent of its owners. The difference between a malicious hacker and an ethical hacker is that an ethical hacker will report problems and glitches instead of taking advantage of them.

There are many terms provided by the English vocabulary for ethical hacking. They are “penetration testing”, “red teaming” and “intrusion testing”.

If you have an interest in “ethical hacking” then there is good news for you. You can also become a Certified Ethical hacker by clearing the certification exam provided by International Council of E-Commerce.