Ethical hacking and ethical hacker

Ethical hacking

Ethical hacking and a ethical hacker are terms that describe hacking performed to help a company or individual identify potential threats on the computer or network. An ethical hacker attempts to hack their way past the system security, finding any weak points in the security that could be exploited by other hackers. The organization uses what the ethical hacker finds to improve the system security, in an effort to minimize, if not eliminate, any potential hacker attacks.

In order for hacking to be deemed ethical, the hacker must obey the below rules.

1. You have permission to probe the network and attempt to identify potential security risks. It's recommended that if you are the person performing the tests that you get written consent.
2. You respect the individual's or company's privacy and only go looking for security issues.
3. You report all security vulnerabilities you detect to the company, not leaving anything open for you or someone else to come in at a later time.
4. You let the software developer or hardware manufacturer know of any security vulnerabilities you locate in their software or hardware if not already known by the company.

The term "ethical hacker" has received criticism at times from people who say that there is no such thing as an "ethical" hacker. Hacking is hacking, no matter how you look at it and those who do the hacking are commonly referred to as computer criminals. However, the work that ethical hackers do for organizations has helped improve system security and can be said to be quite successful. Individuals interested in becoming an ethical hacker can work towards a certification to become a Certified Ethical Hacker. This certification is provided by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council). The exam itself costs about $500 to take and consists of 125 multiple-choice questions in version 8 of the test (version 7 consisted of 150 multiple-choice questions).