Ethical Hacking

by 18:34 0 comments ETHICAL HACKING

ARTICLE BY- Shilpa Sharma (BCA VI semester, 1st shift)

Hacking is basically the exploitation of the weakness of someone’s computer system without the permission of the organization or the individual. One who performs the act of hacking is known as “Hacker”. A hacker has the ability to perform a system breach and enter into anyone’s system. By doing so, they gain access to all the confidential data present in that system and can process and modify it according to their own requirements. Such Hackers also try to create a backdoor in the system so that they can easily access the information in it without any disturbance.
Usually, the term hacking is associated with all such illegal attacks and system breach, but there is also a type of hacking which is done legally with the permission of the organization or individual and following a certain set of rules. This kind of hacking is known as “Ethical Hacking”. Ethical Hacking can only be performed by an ethical hacker. An “Ethical Hacker” is one who uses his hacking skills to help an organization create a much more secure computer system.
An ethical hacker performs penetration tests either on the developed computer system or software or an application to find flaws in its security system. Sometimes an ethical hacker is also referred as a “White Hat Hacker”.
To become an Ethical Hacker, one needs to get the qualification of a “Certified Ethical Hacker”, by taking and clearing the CEH examination after doing self-study or one can attend classes at an ATC (Accredited Training Center). The CEH currently has Version 9 which uses exam code 312-50.
Organizations or Individuals call an Ethical Hacker to perform all the penetration and other testing methods either on their software application or their computer system to find all flaws through which some third party or some non-ethical hacker can access the confidential information. This is done so that the organization or the individual is able to deliver a secure system to its customer.

With the increase in security threats, a need for security checks is being increasing day by day and hence the need of Ethical Hacking is also increasing so that all the loopholes can be rectified before the release of the computer system or the software. This results in increasing demand of Ethical Hackers in the organizations.
Also, Ethical Hacking is used by governmental organizations to trace back a non-ethical hacker in the case of illegal security breach.