Who Are Ethical Hackers
The word hacker has always caused a lot of awareness and curiosity among people and society, most reasons why a hacker is meaningfully to be an untrusted or technically dangerous person or computer magician who normally steals people’s money or has unauthorized access to people’s sensitive or confidential information on computers. For longtime and today’s beliefs, hackers are always considered to be dangerous people; if assuming hackers are reported to be living in a building or in a society then awareness begins and causes people to stay alarmed. However, the hacker is not what most people think he is or define it. Write briefly types of hackers and their strengths in hacking, about who an ethical hacker is, and what he does.
3 Types of Hackers
- In the culture of hacking, we have 3 categories of hackers namely: White Hat Hackers, Gray-Hat Hackers, and Black-Hat Hackers. These three hackers may have been equipped with the same skills but are differentiated only by their mindset or intention in the hacking culture. Some hackers practice only stealing or causing damage mostly for monetary gain and they are categorized as Black Hat Hackers (Criminal hackers).
- Unlike Black-Hat hackers, Gray Hat Hackers are not considered dangerous because most of their discoveries are released and informed back to the owner to deploy a security solution for it, teach, or share to the public as a result of research conducted for their followers/learners to be updated for them not to be a victim in the future – This type hackers are also knowns as Hacking Researchers.
- The third type of hackers is known as White-Hat hackers, they are actually Ethical Hackers, professional hackers who can actively work for a private or government organization by doing what other hackers do. These hackers normally hack their own organization’s computer and protect them if any computer resources are not secure before the Black-Hat Hackers hack them – these types of hackers are called Ethical Hackers.
Ethical Hacker among two others remains the only trusted hacker and are the hackers who worked professionally for private enterprises and government organizations to test, protect, or monitor their own computers and servers for them to stay hackerproof.
Their primary goal is to help organizations strengthen their security posture and protect against potential cyber threats.
Here are some key activities that ethical hackers typically engage in:
- Vulnerability Assessment: Ethical hackers assess systems and networks to identify potential weaknesses or vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors.
- Penetration Testing: This involves simulated attacks on a system or network to discover vulnerabilities and assess how well the existing security measures can withstand such attacks. The goal is to identify and fix potential security issues before real attackers can exploit them.
- Security Auditing: Ethical hackers review and analyze an organization’s security policies, configurations, and infrastructure to ensure they align with industry best practices and compliance requirements.
- Social Engineering Tests: Ethical hackers may use social engineering techniques to test the effectiveness of an organization’s security awareness and training programs. This could involve phishing simulations or other methods to assess how well employees resist social manipulation.
- Code Review: Reviewing the source code of applications or software for security flaws is another common task for ethical hackers. This helps identify and fix vulnerabilities that may exist in the codebase.
- Wireless Network Testing: Ethical hackers may assess the security of wireless networks to ensure that unauthorized individuals cannot gain access. This includes testing the encryption protocols and configurations of Wi-Fi networks.
- Incident Response and Forensics: Ethical hackers may be involved in the aftermath of a security incident to analyze what happened, how it happened, and what can be done to prevent similar incidents in the future.
- Security Consultation: Ethical hackers often provide advice and recommendations to organizations on how to improve their overall security posture. This may include suggesting hardware or software upgrades, implementing new security policies, or providing guidance on best practices.
By identifying and addressing security weaknesses, ethical hackers play a crucial role in helping organizations protect their sensitive information and maintain the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of their systems and data.