Ethical hacking, often performed by white hats or skilled computer
experts, is the use of programming skills to determine vulnerabilities
in computer systems. While the non-ethical hacker or black hat exploits
these vulnerabilities for mischief, personal gain or other reasons, the
ethical hacker evaluates them, points them out, and may suggest changes
to systems that make them less likely to be penetrated by black hats.
White hats can work in a variety of ways. Many companies utilize ethical
hacking services from consultants or full-time employees to keep their
systems and information as secure as possible.
The work of ethical hacking is still considered hacking because it
uses knowledge of computer systems in an attempt to in some way
penetrate them or crash them. This work is ethical because it is
performed to increase the safety of the computer systems. It’s
reasoned that if a white hat can somehow break the security protocols of
a system, so can a black hat. Thus, the goal of ethical hacking is to
determine how to break in or create mischief with the present programs
running, but only at the request of the company that owns the system and
specifically to prevent others from attacking it.
Ethical hacking, also known as penetration testing, intrusion testing
or red teaming is used to find loopholes in an IT system and break into
it. An ethical hacker is a computer and network expert who attacks a
security system on behalf of its owners, seeking vulnerabilities that a
malicious hacker could exploit. This work is ethical because it is
performed to increase the safety of the computer systems, but only at
the request of the company that owns the system and specifically to
prevent others from attacking it. With the increasing use of the
internet, it has become an essential part of IT security industry today.
