Introduction:
1、What Is an Ethical Hacker and Why Do You Need One?

What Is an Ethical Hacker and Why Do You Need One? ♂
First, it’s important to know that cyber attacks are very real. They happen every day. Most importantly, you are not immune to them.
In the case of your personal identity, a cyber attack can wreak havoc. However, a cyber attack on your business holds the potential to undo everything you’ve worked so hard for.
Read on to learn more about ethical hackers and why they might be the vital piece your team is missing. The decision could be what saves your company from a malicious hacker attack.
An ethical hacker is an important part of ensuring the security of your business or program. Ethical hackers are often used by businesses that involve a high volume of confidential information. This includes banks, credit unions, or other government sites.
To avoid identity theft or having their system corrupted by hackers, these companies will hire ethical hackers to check for any “holes in the fence”.
An ethical hacker will often do this by scanning ports in search of vulnerabilities, checking patch installations, and engaging in social engineering concepts. An ethical hacker may also look into potential employee fraud risks that may occur within the company.
Ethical hackers can be hired for either long term or short term projects, and while they do have a wealth of technical information they typically don’t fall into the category of “bad-hacker-turned-good” that you may have seen in movies.
As the concept of ethical hackers becomes more mainstream, there’s no surprise that there are a number of myths that arise with the position. One myth widely believed is that ethical hackers or “white hat hackers” are not as knowledgeable as malicious or “black hat” hackers.
The fact is, ethical hackers hold as much intelligence and skill as any other hackers found in the web, what matters is their experience, not their intentions.
Another myth is that simply hiring an ethical hacker to perform one test is enough. Now, if you are only financially capable to commit to one test with an ethical hacker, it will be better than nothing.
However, it’s important to know there’s no guarantee that your system is safe. To be sure that there is no chance of a hack occurring, an ethical hacker will have to check a number of methods over an extended period of time.
Ethical hacking is not a run of the mill IT job, which is why it comes with its own host of qualifications. The qualifications you should be looking for in an ethical hacker will really depend on the type of software you’re working with and the tests that will be performed.
However, some general qualifications may include EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker certification, Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG) approval, and passing a two-level penetration test. Still, it’s important to remember that a hacker that simply comes with a vast amount of technical knowledge might be enough to keep your software safe.
If you really want to be sure you’re hiring the right ethical hacker, we suggest giving them a short test that doesn’t involve access to any of your private data.
If you’re surprised to hear that “ethical hacking” is actually a thing, don’t be. Cybercrime continues to create a vulnerable environment for those who use the web. One recent Government Security Breaches Survey shows that 74% of small organisations experienced some form of cybersecurity breach in the last year.
Take into account the amount of private information transferred across the web on a daily basis, and it’s easy to see why the stakes are so high. Hackers are targeting both large and small organisations at a rapid (and often automated) rate.
Larger companies that have fallen victim to hacks, like Target, have faced a massive backlash from their customers due to the invasion of privacy.
So why is an ethical hacker important to your company? Today it’s rare for any business of any form to not have some form of private and important information saved online.
Whether it’s the social security numbers of your employees that are used for payroll or the credit card numbers of customers that trust your site is secure, there are countless ways a cyber attack can wreak havoc on your business.
This is even more critical if you have developed your own software platform, such as an app or program, in which others will be entrusting you with sensitive information. It’s your legal responsibility to provide security, and the only way to truly test that your business is hacker-proof is by hiring a hacker.
There are a number of tasks and projects that an ethical hacker can take on to help ensure the security of your company.
These responsibilities may include:
These tasks could take a few months, or you may choose to hire an ethical hacker as a permanent part of your team. If your company involves frequent software updates, it may be worth it to hire a full-time ethical hacker.
The salary of an ethical hacker ranges on the role they are fulfilling, the project, and the sensitivity of the information. Ethical hackers can be hired almost like a freelancer on a project-by-project basis, or they may be hired as a full-time position.
The salary may also change depending on whether or not the ethical hacker is hired by a government agency or an agency of defense. The average salary of an ethical hacker can range between $50,000 to $100,000 per year in the first year of employment.
This will also depend on the ethical hackers experience and education. Within a few years, most ethical hackers will earn $120,000 and up annually. If this seems like a steep amount, it’s important to keep in mind the alternative. How much money could you lose in the event of a malicious hacker attack?
While ethical hacking may sound like something straight out of a crime thriller, by definition it is entirely legal. In fact, since ethical hacking does no harm and actually protects, it’s not considered any threat to the legal system.
In fact, you may find that you already have worked with ethical hackers in the past, just under a different name. An ethical hacker may be titled as a “security analyst“, “information security consultant” or even a “network security specialist”.
In reality, “ethical hacker” is just a cool and useful way of saying the individual used skills commonly used by hackers to better protect your business.
Hiring an ethical hacker doesn’t mean having to take a trip to the dark web. There are easier (and more legal ways) to get the help you need to protect your business.
But first, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you want from your ethical hacker. You’ll have to be able to communicate your expectations, so no ahead of time what you’re looking for.
Be direct with specific questions to better determine what tests need to be done. You can choose to hire an ethical course hacker through an organisation or you can choose to enroll your own team members in ethical hacking courses if they show a strong proficiency in technology.
Either way, you’ll want to have your potential ethical hacker complete a penetration test before investing in their services.
Knowing what an ethical hacker is is just one aspect of cybersecurity recruitment. It’s important to have every area of your business covered to ensure all information is secure. It’s also important to know that this isn’t an overnight process, in some cases, it’s better to prolong a launch than to put out an insecure product.
If you want to ensure you aren’t facing any security risks with your programs, feel free to contact us today so you can begin taking the right steps to protect your business, customers, and information.
Hackers for hire ♂
Many early depictions of hackers on the silver screen portrayed relatively benign individuals, such as Matthew Broderick's teenage boy in the 1984 film, War Games or Val Kilmer's young prodigy in Real Genius. But over the years the hacker's screen persona has become more complex and multi-faceted in line with the public's ambivalence towards them and their criminal activities. As a result, we have seen in recent years the hacker depicted as a terrorist threat in the James Bond film Goldeneye, a cog caught up in a malicious plot in Hackers and a pawn in a battle against artificial intelligence software in The Matrix.
Real life hackers have also evolved with the times. Prior to the Millennium, hackers could largely be divided into two groups: a minority of intelligent, computer-literate individuals that hacked into some of the most secure websites in the world for kudos within the hacking community or to show their defiance of global establishments; and a second group that worked with serious organized crime gangs to garner funds for their illegal activities, such as prostitution, drug trafficking and pornography.
Since then, organized crime units have continued to provide a fruitful income for a group of hackers that are effectively on their payroll. Their willingness to pay for hacking expertise has also given rise to a new subset of hackers. These are not hardcore criminals in pursuit of defrauding a bank or duping thousands of consumers. In one sense, they are the next generation of hackers that carry out their activities in pursuit of credibility from their peers and the 'buzz' of hacking systems considered to be unbreakable.
Where they come into contact with serious criminals is through underworld forums and chatrooms, where their findings are published and they are paid effectively for their intellectual property. This form of hacking – essentially 'hacking for hire' – is becoming more common with hackers trading zero-day exploit information, malcode, bandwidth, identities and toolkits underground for cash. So a hacker might package together a Trojan that defeats the latest version of an antivirus client and sell that to a hacking community sponsored by criminals.
These packages are often put together using some of the tools available in the marketplace today. Anyone can take advantage of these products, which are often sold legally as applications to protect children from harm on the internet, for example, by tracking their discussions in chatrooms. But in the wrong hands these tools can be used to malicious intent and, indeed, have already spawned a new form of hacker.
The recent incident of the cyber extortion attack is a perfect example of this new form of hacking. The attack attempted to extort money from users by encrypting files on the user's hard drive by holding files to ransom and then requesting payment for a decoder tool.
Collectively, these hackers pose a growing threat to businesses and individuals. In the U.K. for example 40 percent of all financial crime businesses suffered in 2003 were attributed to phishing and other hi-tech crime, such as spyware, viruses and Trojan horses. These crimes cost businesses in the country in excess of $4.7 billion during 2004.
So how can organizations defend themselves against these new threats and hacker profiles? A recent white paper from research firm IDC revealed that 90 percent of breaches in security originate from within the company. Obviously, telling employees not to use the internet will never work – some employees will continue to disobey orders even if their intention is benign. Therefore, organizations need to put in place an employee internet management strategy that provides an automatic means of controlling internet usage while educating users on the dangers posed by their activities.
In addition, employers need to carry out a review of their organization's internal processes and policies to find out what strategies are in place to track data and internet use, respond to an IT security breach and ensure compliance with standards such as ISO17799 or regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
For organizations with a mobile workforce, there are further IT security challenges in protecting mobile devices, such as PDAs and laptops, from offering hackers another backdoor into the organization. Employers must broaden their IT security policy to take into account changing working practices and make sure that they have safeguards in place – such as an acceptable internet usage policy – to protect every corner of the company from the new generation of hackers.
Above all, organizations need to realize that hackers are not the sole preserve of the big screen but pose a real threat to every business and consumer. Therefore, the more secure an organization can make its IT infrastructure, the more chance it has of creating its own happy ending.
Related questions
To hire a legitimate hacker ethically and legally, follow these guidelines:
1. Define a Legal Purpose
- Ensure the task is lawful (e.g., penetration testing, recovering your own accounts, cybersecurity audits).
- Avoid any activity involving unauthorized access or illegal actions.
2. Seek Certified Professionals
- Look for Certified Ethical Hackers (CEH) or professionals with credentials like OSCP, CISSP, or CompTIA Security+.
- Verify certifications through issuing bodies (e.g., EC-Council, Offensive Security).
3. Use Reputable Platforms
- Cybersecurity Firms: Contact established companies offering penetration testing or incident response services (e.g., CrowdStrike, Secureworks).
- Freelance Platforms: Use Upwork or Toptal to find vetted professionals.
- Bug Bounty Platforms: Engage with ethical hackers via HackerOne or Bugcrowd (though these are typically for vulnerability reporting, not direct hiring).
4. Verify Credentials and Reputation
- Check reviews, testimonials, or case studies on LinkedIn or company websites.
- Request references and validate them through professional channels.
5. Ensure Professional Communication
- Legitimate hackers use secure, professional communication and provide clear scope, timelines, and contracts.
- Avoid vague promises or unrealistic claims (e.g., "100% guaranteed hacking in 24 hours").
6. Legal Agreements
- Draft a contract outlining the scope, confidentiality, and compliance with laws (e.g., GDPR, CFAA).
- Use escrow services or trusted payment platforms to avoid scams.
7. Avoid Red Flags
- Steer clear of unsolicited offers, dark web forums, or requests for upfront payment via cryptocurrency.
- Never engage in activities violating privacy laws or terms of service.
Recommended Resources
- EC-Council Directory: Find CEH-certified professionals.
- HackerOne Community: Connect with ethical hackers (though primarily for bug bounties).
- Cybersecurity Associations: Explore ISACA or (ISC)2 for member directories.
Example Use Cases
- Businesses: Hire a firm for penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities.
- Individuals: Use platform support (e.g., Facebook, Google) for account recovery. If stuck, consult a cybersecurity expert via legal channels.
By prioritizing legality, verification, and professionalism, you can ethically address your needs while avoiding scams or legal risks.
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