What is Ethical Hacking? - Definition, History & Examples?

Ethical Hacking

Process of legally hacking the information that is considered to be confidential and  An expert hired by an organization, to attempt to attack their network and computer system, the same way a hacker would use the same techniques & tactics used by the hackers and The end result is the company’s ability to prevent an intrusion before it occurs.

Ethics :

Moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior

Hacking :

The practice of modifying the features of a system, to accomplish a goal outside of the creator's original purpose

Hacking: How it all began ??

• been around for more than a century
•  the 1870s, several teenagers were flung off the country's brand new phone system by enraged authorities

Hacking in the past 40 years

•  the 1960s –MIT’s artificial intelligence lab, became staging grounds for hackers.
•  the 1970s –John Draper makes a long-distance call for free
•  the 1980s –Kevin Mitnick, secretly monitors the e-mail of MCI and Digital Equipment security officials
• the 1990s –Hackers break into and deface federal Web sites, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Air Force, CIA, NASA, and others.

Why is security needed ??

• information is a strategic resource
• a significant portion of the organizational budget is spent on managing information
• have several security-related objectives
• confidentiality -keep info secret
• integrity -protect info accuracy
• availability -ensure info delivery

What is the difference between Ethical hackers and hackers?

Done legally with permission of the respective organization and hacker Done illegally without the consent of

the respective organization. Ethical Hacker did in an attempt to prevent malicious attacks from being successful. Hackers did this in an attempt to make malicious attacks possible. Ethical Hacker discloses any vulnerabilities to discovered. Hacker Exploit discovered vulnerabilities.

Types of Hackers

• Script Kiddies :
• Amateurs, copy others codes to attack
• White Hat Hackers :
• The professional term for ethical hackers
• Black Hat Hackers :
• The professional term for malicious hackers
• Gray Hat Hackers :
• Combination of both, hack to learn
• Self-proclaimed ethical hackers
• Hacktivists :
• Hacker + Activists
• State-Sponsored Hackers :
• Limitless time & funding by govt.

Spy Hackers: Hired hackers by corporations

Cyber Terrorists:

Motivated by religious/political beliefs

Spread fear, terror, and commit murders

Steps Involved :

• Footprinting / Information Gathering :
• Gathering potential information about the target system
• A good hacker consumes 90% of the time for this phase
• Scanning :
• The network is scanned for any vulnerabilities

Steps Involved :

• System Hacking :
• Involves actual hacking
• Taking advantage of vulnerabilities found during the scanning, & penetrate the victim’s system
• Maintaining Access :
• Making provisions by planting backdoors
• Covering Tracks :
• Removing all the traces of his presence in the system by removing log files & event logs

Skills required to become an Ethical Hacking Assistant-

An Ethical Hacking Assistant must have detailed information about all systems, networks, codes, security measures, etc. in order to be effective in hacking. Some of these talents include Programming information required by security professionals working in application security and package development life cycle (SDLC) work. Those who are good at fighting network attacks and host attacks usually need scripting skills. 

Based on the attack. Learn about all the gift devices on the network, how they are connected, and how to determine if they are threatened by Linux, Unix, etc. Ability to use completely different hacking tools. Information from search engines and servers.