Introduction：
1、Ethical Hacking 2025： Why the Companies Pay For Getting Hacked？
Ethical Hacking 2025： Why the Companies Pay For Getting Hacked？ ♂
We can easily say that Ethical Hacking is a confusing concept. Many people don’t understand what is Ethical Hacking and what Ethical Hacker is doing. Is Ethical Hacking a real job? Why a company is willing to pay a high amount for ethical hacking? Why people are getting Ethical Hacker trainings? Let’s explain what ethical hacking is!
First, let’s start with the history of Ethical Hacking. In the last 10 years, thousands of organizations have been hacked and lost millions of dollars, their reputations, and their customers. They have also faced legal issues because they were not able to secure their customers’ information which was stolen. The remarkable point here is that some of those organizations, like Sony, Yahoo, RSA, are big organizations. And they are spending a great amount on security in order not to get hacked; so that their information wouldn’t get stolen. That’s why they choose Ethical Hacking and decide to hire a hacker who tries to hack into their system and tells how he was able to hack them. Ethical Hacking serves to see what kind of weaknesses the company’s system has.
Ethical hacking professionals are getting hired by companies to hack their systems and to report back with the weaknesses. They help the company to learn which precautions they can take.
So ethical hacking is a valuable skill these days, that’s why there are several cyber security certifications and also many cyber security courses to get those certificates.
Ethical Hacking simulates what is done by malicious hacking to hack company. Ethical Hacking consist of 5 different phases as explained in CISSP certification training:
During this phase, Ethical Hackers gather information about their victim. Mainly passive information, which is available on public records, websites, and social media. They gather information such as emails, contact information, hobbies, friends, activities, etc.
During the fist phase, Ethical Hackers can collect technical information as well, like the victim’s IP, if the victim is a website. Ethical Hacker can get the registration information, the contact person’s email and phone number. All those information are very easy to get from the internet. Ethical Hacker can also get some confidential information like employment history or background information.
During second phases, Ethical Hackers will also collect information about their victim. But this time active information such as open ports on the victim’s computer, services, and applications, what operating system the victim is using and the network topology if the target is a network. Using that information, Ethical Hackers will do some advanced search to know which service, port, application or operating system is vulnerable and can be used to hack the system. And how the Ethical Hacker can hack that system using those vulnerabilities.
From the first and the second phases, Ethical Hacker will have a clear idea about the victim systems and the vulnerabilities that he can use to hack the system and to get access to the information. So they will start using them to gain access to the system. The system could be a personal computer, a computer network, a website or a wireless network.
After the third phase, the Ethical Hacker who is now able to hack the system needs to maintain his access so he doesn’t have to repeat all those steps in the future. This can be done easily by combining himself to any system process and by doing that, the system owner will not be able to get rid of the Ethical hacker. So the hacker will be always spying on this system.
Since hacking is a crime, any malicious hacker after hacking any system will try to delete all the logs and any evidence that may be used against him. Ethical Hacker needs to follow the same steps to check if the logging system of the company is effective and capture logs properly or can be manipulated be any malicious hacker.
Finally, after all those phases, the Ethical Hacker needs to write a report to explain what he did in each phase, what was his findings and which proper countermeasures he recommends.
Ethical Hacking is a new type of the security jobs, that has high demand in the market today. Ethical Hacker gets well paid for doing that, especially if they are qualified and hold some professional certificate. If you are willing to get a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certificate, wait no more to enroll in a CEH certification training. If you want to learn more about CEH renewal you can read the article by clicking on the link.
You can enroll in free CISSP training to learn more about CISSP certification.
Author Biography:
What is Ethical Hacking ♂
What is Ethical Hacking?
Malicious hackers use an array of tools and methodologies to breach cybersecurity, such as social engineering techniques or exploiting vulnerabilities in networks, configurations, and software with cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection (SQLI), and other types of attacks. Adding hurdles in their way are ethical hackers, also known as white hat hackers. Such professionals use their own sets of tools and assessment techniques to identify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them.
Read this in-depth guide for more on:
Here is an ethical hacking definition in simple terms: ethical hacking is a legal and sanctioned attempt to circumvent the cybersecurity of a system or application, typically to find vulnerabilities. Many ethical hackers try to operate from the mindset of a malicious hacker, using the same software and tactics.
An example of ethical hacking is when a person is authorized by an organization to try and hack their web application. Another example is when a white hat hacker is hired by an organization to test its staff with simulated social engineering attacks like phishing emails.
An ethical hacker is any person who attempts to circumvent the security of an organization, website, application, or network with legal consent. The goal of an ethical hacker is to locate weaknesses and vulnerabilities legally to help organizations mitigate the risk of exploits, breaches, social engineering campaigns and other kinds of cyberattacks. Professional ethical hackers work closely with security teams and offer detailed reports and proposals.
Although the term “hacking” is usually associated with negative connotations, there are several different types of hackers, including white hat, back hat and gray hat hackers. Although all hackers attempt to find vulnerabilities, their motivations can vary.
As mentioned, white hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers. They have consent from owners of systems to find security flaws through hacking, penetration testing, and anti-phishing simulation. White hat hackers can also use the same methods as malicious hackers to simulate attacks.
Black hat hackers are also known as malicious hackers. They break into systems and networks illegally. Black hat hackers engage in hacking to steal sensitive information like passwords, addresses, and credit card information, damage systems, or for spying.
While gray hat hackers don’t have malicious intentions, they operate outside the law. For example, they may break into a system without the consent of the system owner. Grey hat hackers may look for vulnerabilities to highlight them. Some gray hat hackers breach systems to show off, however, they don’t steal data, nor do they cause any harm.
Ethical hackers usually start by defining the scope of their tasks in the first phase of ethical hacking. The planning phase depends on the project, tools, methodologies, and objectives outlined by the organization and security partners. The ethical hacker may also utilize search engines and other tools to gather information about the target.
After gathering information and planning the approach, an ethical hacker usually scans the target for vulnerabilities. The goal is to find entry points and flaws that can be exploited most easily. Ethical hackers may use scanning tools like port scanners, dialers, network scanners, web app scanners, etc.
With the vulnerability assessment complete, the ethical hacker begins to take advantage of the security flaws. Ethical hackers can use different tools and methods, including technology utilized by malicious hackers. However, they avoid tools and areas outside of the scope defined by their client.
After breaching the target’s security, an ethical hacker thinks like a malicious hacker by trying to maintain access for as long as possible and evading security measures. They also gain an understanding of the potential damage they can cause, such as data theft, privilege escalation, malware drops, lateral movements, opening backdoors and more.
After exploitation, the ethical hacker offers a detailed report of their actions. The report includes details of the breach, identified security flaws, and suggestions for remediation. Their client may follow recommendations from the report to apply patches, reconfigure or even reinstall systems, change access controls, or invest in new security tools. The ethical hacker may simulate a second attack to check the effectiveness of the remedial measures.
Many experts classify penetration testing as a subset of ethical hacking. While ethical hacking is a general term for finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a system with the consent of its owner, penetration is a specific technique that utilizes a systemic approach involving targeting, analysis, exploitation, and remediation.
Organizations hire penetration testers to improve their cybersecurity posture. Penetration testers are authorized to simulate attacks on a computer system and may use the same tools and methodologies as black hat hackers to demonstrate the flaws in a system. Some penetration testers are given instructions ahead of the attack while others are given no information and are required to gather intelligence on their own. In covert penetration tests, the cybersecurity team of an organization is kept completely in the dark about the simulated attack to make the test more authentic.
The first responsibility of an ethical hacker is to have authorization for hacking. In other words, they must have consent from their target before hacking their systems. It’s also a good idea to have the scope of the test defined and written beforehand to prevent any legal problems.
After beginning the task, they must avoid any activity that may harm their client or is out of the agreed-upon boundaries of the ethical hacking project. Ethical hackers should also remain professional and respect the privacy of everyone involved. Some ethical hackers must sign non-disclosure agreements for the protection of their clients.
As mentioned, penetration testing is a type of ethical hacking. White hat hackers use penetration testing to find and exploit vulnerabilities in a computer system. The goal is to test the defences of a system, offer recommendations, and show how easily a threat actor can initiate an effective cyberattack.
Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of the user of a system. Threat actors try to breach the authentication process to gain unauthorized access to confidential data or complete other malicious tasks. Ethical hackers can help test the strength of an authentication system by testing passwords, lockout mechanisms, and the account recovery process by simulating brute force attacks, multi-factor fatigue attacks, and more.
Ethical hackers can simulate attacks like spearing-phishing, smishing, vishing, pretexting, and baiting, to test an organization’s readiness against social engineering attacks. An ethical hacker may also deploy scareware, which is malicious software that uses fictitious threats and false alarms to test how people react.
Ethical hackers must use their skill set, training, techniques and tools to identify all weaknesses within the parameters of the simulated attack. Finding vulnerabilities is usually an ethical hacker’s primary task, and they must be thorough. The vulnerabilities can include zero-day flaws, misconfigurations, or other weaknesses.
Ethical hackers should remediate security loopholes to prevent malicious hackers from utilizing them. They should remove any traces of their activities, including malicious software. Folders, applications, and files should be restored to their original status.
In addition to knowing common programming languages, ethical hackers should know about hardware, reverse engineering, and networking. They should also complete the right certifications and stay up to date in their field about threats and security vulnerabilities. They can tackle the latest security threats and utilize the newest remediation measures by upgrading their training and staying in touch with cybersecurity groups.
A professional ethical hacker must offer a thorough report of their actions to their client. The report must include an account of discovered vulnerabilities and suggestions for improvement.
A conventional hacker tries to gain unauthorized access to a system for personal gain or notoriety. In the process, they may damage their target, use malware like ransomware, or steal confidential information. However, an ethical hacker mimics the actions of a traditional malicious hacker with the authorization of their client. Instead of personal gain, ethical hackers use their knowledge and skills to harden the cybersecurity of an organization.
Ethical hackers use a number of penetration testers, network scanners, and other security testing tools to find security vulnerabilities.
Nmap, short for network mapper, is one of the most popular network scanning and mapping tools for security auditing. Ethical hackers can use their baked-in library to scan for open ports and find vulnerabilities in target systems. Nmap also works on some rooted and unrooted phones.
Wireshark is one of the most popular packet sniffers in the world. It grabs entire streams of traffic while listening to a network connection in real-time. Ethical hackers can analyze network traffic with this network protocol analyzer to find vulnerabilities and other issues.
Burp Suite is a comprehensive web security testing platform. Ethical hackers can use it to scan, intercept and modify traffic, and scan for flaws in web applications. It includes a proxy server, repeater, and intruder mode. Burp Suite also has useful tools such as Spider, Intruder, and Repeater.
评论已关闭