Hello, readers welcome back to another article where we are going to discuss what is the need for ethical hacking in a real-life scenario.
This will help you to understand all the needs and concepts for ethical hacking and ethical hacker in companies.
The term ethical hacking refers to the way of pen-testing a system for any type of loopholes or security vulnerabilities with the permission of its owner for preventing any type of cyber attack on it.
There is a popular term that:- to beat a hacker you need to think like a hacker.
Ethical hacking is the practice of learning and applying necessary countermeasures for preventing a malicious hacker from getting any type of unauthorized access to our system by breaking IT security loopholes.
Why ethical hacking is necessary
In today’s time technology is rapidly growing very faster in the digital world so this growth is coming with a risk associated with it and to reduce debt risk we require ethical hackers for preventing this risk.
Ethical hacking is very necessary because it allows us to counter-attacks from malicious hackers by anticipating methods used by them to break into a system.
It always helps to predict many types of vulnerabilities in advance and rectify them without incurring any kind of outside attack.
Ethical hacking always involves things like creative thinking, vulnerability testing, and security audit, which alone cannot ensure that the network is secure.
To achieve security, organizations must implement a defense-in-depth strategy by penetrating their network to estimate and expose vulnerabilities.
reasons why Organizations recruit ethical hackers:-
- because they prevent hackers from gaining unauthorized access to the organization’s system
- to discover vulnerabilities in the system and explode their potential risk before any hacker can do
- to analyze and strengthen an organization’s security posture, including policies, network protection infrastructure, and end-user practice.
- to create attack prevention measures in order to avoid any security breaches
- to help safeguard the customer data
- to enhance security awareness at all levels in a business
Questions asked to an ethical hacker
As an ethical hacker sometimes you need to give answers to some basic questions because you are a security professional for that organization’s information system
what can attackers see on the target system
The normal security checks by System Administrator will often overlook vulnerabilities. ethical hacker has to think about what an attacker might see during the reconnaissance and scanning phases of an attack.
What can an intruder do with that information?
The ethical hacker must discern the intent and purpose behind attacks to determine appropriate countermeasures. During the gaining access and maintaining-access phases of an attack, the ethical hacker needs to be one step ahead of the hacker in order to provide adequate protection.
Are the attackers’ attempts being noticed on the target systems?
Sometimes attackers will try to breach a system for days, weeks, or even months. Other times they will gain access but will wait before doing anything damaging. Instead, they will take the time to assess the potential use of exposed information. During the reconnaissance and covering tracks phases, the ethical hacker should notice and stop the attack.
After carrying out a successful attack an attacker need to clear their tracks by modifying log files and creating back doors, or by deploying Trojans.
An ethical hacker must investigate whether such activities have been recorded and what preventive measures have been taken.
This not only provides same with an assessment of the attacker’s proficiency but also gives them insight into the existing security measures of the system being evaluated.
Scope and limitation of an ethical hacker
Scope:- Ethical hacking is a crucial component of risk assessment, auditing, counter fraud, and information systems security best practices.
It is also used to identify risks and highlight remedial actions. it also reduces ICT costs by resolving vulnerabilities.
Limitations:- Unless the businesses already know what they are looking for and why they are hiring an outside vendor to hack systems in the first place, chances are there would not be much to gain from the experience.
An ethical hacker can only help the organization to better understand its security system; it is up to the organization to place the right safeguards on the network.
Skills required to be an ethical hacker
technical skills and non-technical skills
| Technical Skills | Non-Technical Skills |
|---|---|
| In-depth knowledge of major operating environments such as Windows, Unix, Linux, and Macintosh | The ability to learn and adopt new technologies quickly |
| A computer expert adept at technical domains Knowledgeable about security areas and related issues | Strong work ethic and good problem-solving and communication skills |
| “High technical” knowledge for launching sophisticated attacks | Committed to the organization’s security policies |
| In-depth knowledge of networking concepts, technologies, and related hardware and software | An awareness of local standards and laws |
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