Introduction：
1、What is Ethical Hacking？ Everything You Need to Know About Ethical Hacking—With Examples
2、What Is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)？
What is Ethical Hacking？ Everything You Need to Know About Ethical Hacking—With Examples ♂
While hacking is ordinarily considered an illegal activity, ethical hacking involves companies hiring highly trained cybersecurity experts for the express purpose of infiltrating their computer networks, systems and web applications. The logic behind these simulated cyberattacks is that they enable organizations to preemptively uncover vulnerabilities, anticipate the antics of cybercriminals and create disaster recovery plans based on “real-world” conditions.
Upon discovering a vulnerability, such as missing data encryption or cross-site scripting, these “white hat” hackers must document them and provide the organization with advice on remediation. A “black hat” hacker, on the other hand, is an unauthorized intruder who seeks to extract information or compromise a system.
“Ethical hacking starts with curiosity first,” said Anand Mohabir, founder and CEO of Elteni, a cybersecurity consulting firm. “If you’re a curious person by nature and if you like breaking things and fixing them from a technical perspective, then it’s probably for you.”
Even though these benign hackers are contracted by companies to perform penetration tests, becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) doesn’t give one license to run amok. An ethical hack is carefully planned out, where the hacker enters into a legal agreement with the company stipulating what systems and applications they’re allowed to compromise, start and end times for the simulated cyberattack, the scope of work and protections for potential liability issues.
“We need to make sure that we have a legal basis to do these things and protect ourselves from legal recourse,” Mohabir explained. “So it is a very formal process when it comes to contracting these ethical hacking exercises.”
There are three main benefits to ethical hacking.
Finding vulnerabilities—Determining which security measures are effective, which ones need to be updated, and which ones contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
Demonstrating methods used by cybercriminals—Showing executives the hacking techniques that malicious actors might use to attack their systems.
Preparing for a cyberattack—Anticipating cyberattacks and buttressing weak spots in the organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure.
Penetration testing is a form of ethical hacking that involves attempting to breach application systems, APIs, front-end/back-end servers, operating systems and more. Ethical hackers perform a range of penetration tests to determine an organization’s cybersecurity readiness, including internal testing, external testing and web application testing.
External tests are the most common type and involve someone outside of the organization attempting to infiltrate security systems. Misconfigured firewalls or vulnerabilities in third-party applications are commonplace vulnerabilities, and can cost an organization millions of dollars in financial and reputational damage. For example, an email server must be configured to stop employees from sending confidential documents to domains outside of the organization and require employees to protect their corporate email accounts with a strong password policy.
On the other hand, internal tests are designed to find weaknesses within the organization. In fact, employees represent the weakest link in cybersecurity as they are prone to social engineering—any type of psychological manipulation that induces people to divulge sensitive information. In 2020, almost a third of security breaches incorporated social engineering techniques, 90% of which were phishing attacks. Worse still, a report by Cisco found that spear phishing attacks account for 95% of breaches in enterprise networks. While phishing generally involves indiscriminately sending mass emails or text messages containing malicious URLs that download malware onto the victim’s device, spear phishing constitutes a targeted approach aimed at a specific individual, such as a C-level executive.
“People are creatures of habit, they reuse passwords, and they’re not very good at detecting social engineering attempts,” said Mohabir. “What we know is people generally trust other people, so we look to exploit that when we’re doing these types of tests.”
Ethical hackers need to get creative when it comes to ferreting out people-related vulnerabilities. For example, they can leave a mysteriously labeled USB drive on an employee’s desk to see if they’ll plug it into their computer, bait an employee over the phone into revealing customer information, or “even impersonate a pizza delivery guy and walk into somebody’s office.” In fact, dumpster diving is an important part of safeguarding an organization from a potential data breach. When improperly disposed of, trash from a business can contain hard drives, USB drives or hand-shredded checks that reveal confidential information.
Often, ethical hackers will help organizations put technical safeguards in place to mitigate the potential damages of social engineering, such as a data loss prevention (DLP) solution or strict policies around firewalls and web filtering. Employees also need to be trained to understand what cyber threats they might encounter and how to recognize social engineering.
The third type of penetration testing, known as web application testing, entails checking a website for potential bugs. This is a commonplace procedure in the software development life cycle before the site goes live. Specifically, web testing checks for non-functional requirements such as availability, reliability, security, performance and more, all of which can be compromised in the event of a cyberattack.
Some techniques that ethical hackers use to probe a system include the following:
Scanning ports to find vulnerabilities using port scanning tools such as Nmap, Nessus or Wireshark to scan a company’s systems, identify open ports, study the vulnerabilities of each port and take remedial action. (A port is a communication endpoint that is associated with a specific process or service. Ports allow computers to differentiate between different kinds of traffic.)
Examining patch installation processes to be sure they don’t introduce new vulnerabilities through software updates
Attempting to evade intrusion detection systems, honeypots and firewalls
Performing network traffic analysis and sniffing using appropriate tools
Social engineering to manipulate end users and obtain information about an organization’s computing environment
Cyberattacks are so costly—IBM estimates that a single data breach costs a business $3.86 million on average—that some companies offer a financial reward to independent security researchers to find and report bugs back to the organization. These bugs are security exploits and vulnerabilities, but can also include process issues and hardware flaws. Bug bounty programs can be private (invite-only) or public (anyone can sign up). Major companies including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Snapchat, Dropbox and more offer bug bounty programs. Most companies offer a minimum and maximum payout—Microsoft, for instance, pays a minimum of $15,000 for finding critical bugs, with rewards topping out at $250,000. However, bug bounty hacking is far from a get-rich-quick scheme. Breaking into a computer system is time-consuming and requires a great deal of advanced research into how operating systems and applications work, learning more about an organization’s technology stack, and developing and testing exploits.
“Ethical hackers spend a lot more time doing research than hacking,” said Mohabir. “The reason for that is we’re trying to develop a way into the client’s environment and that involves understanding how they operate, what systems they have, whether those systems are vulnerable to attacks and what kinds of exploits we can develop.”
While there is no formal education pathway towards becoming an ethical hacker, many start by obtaining a computer science degree or taking a course in cybersecurity, such as Springboard’s Cyber Security Career Track. Experience in network support, network engineering and information security are helpful to have before you obtain your Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification from the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants.
“There’s a lot that comes into play when you’re trying to become an ethical hacker. You have to know how a network is designed and operated, how servers interact, how virtual machines, storage and firewalls work,” said Mohabir. “The reality is you at least have to know how systems interoperate so that you can reverse engineer them to find vulnerabilities and exploit them.”
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What Is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)？ ♂
A certified ethical hacker (CEH) is a credentialed security IT professional who evaluates computer systems for possible security vulnerabilities and weaknesses. A CEH uses the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker and threat actor but uses their resources lawfully and legitimately to help MSPs, MSSPs, and IT enterprises build a more robust cybersecurity framework.
The CEH certification by the EC-Council is a globally recognized cybersecurity credential that teaches professionals various ethical hacking practices. It operates on the principle of, “To beat a hacker, you need to think like one”, and guides IT pros to lawfully penetrate computers and IT networks to determine if vulnerabilities exist and then take preventative, corrective, and protective countermeasures to mitigate the risk.
The CEH credential:
Teaches professional information security specialists various ethical hacking measures;
Informs the public that the credentialed professional meets or exceeds the minimum standards; and
Reinforces ethical hacking as a legitimate and unique profession.
The actual exam comprises 125 questions and lasts for around four hours. To maintain the high integrity of the certificate, EC-Council exams are provided in multiple forms, with different “cut scores” set on a “per exam form basis”. Depending on which exam form is challenged, these cut scores can range from 60% to 85%. As of the time of writing, the application fee is $100.
The CEH certification by the EC-Council is the most widely recognized ethical hacking certification. However, security professionals who want a more holistic cybersecurity certification portfolio can also consider the following:
CompTIA PenTest+: The CompTIA PenTest+ covers hands-on vulnerability assessment, scanning, and analysis. Unlike other pentesting exams, CompTIA PenTest+ uses both performance-based and knowledge-based testing.
SANS GIAC Penetration Testing (GPEN): The GPEN certification evaluates how well a cybersecurity professional can properly conduct a penetration test using best practice techniques and methodologies.
You can also take advantage of the NinjaOne Academy, a free training and certification program that educates IT professionals on NinjaOne’s endpoint management platform, including how it prevents cyberattacks.
The goal of a certified ethical hacker is to improve network and endpoint security without harming the network or its users. They use the same skills as malicious hackers but are legitimately employed by business leaders who want to future-proof their organizations.
In a way, ethical hacking can be considered a “rehearsal” for real-world cyberattacks. Business leaders can keep their networks ready for 2025 and beyond by hiring ethical hackers to launch simulated attacks on their computer networks. During these attacks, an ethical hacker demonstrates how an actual cybercriminal would attempt to break into a network and exploit any vulnerability.
From there, your security analysts can use this information to strengthen your security systems and protect sensitive data.
It’s worth noting that ethical hacking is often interchanged with “penetration testing”. However, pentesting is only one of the many methods ethical hackers use. Ethical hackers are well-versed in the various techniques real-world hackers use and may even research heavily on the dark web for the latest methods. As such, CEHs can also conduct vulnerability assessments, malware analysis, and other network security services.
Because ethical hacking is closely related to nefarious activities, certified ethical hackers must maintain a strict code of ethics. Aside from their certification from the EC-Council, CEHs must maintain their integrity through a set of values, which include:
No harm must be caused by an ethical hacker. Just as medical professionals are empowered to never harm their patients, ethical hackers must never do actual damage to the systems they hack, nor steal any personal data they may find. Ethical hackers exist only to protect and demonstrate what real cybercriminals may do.
Everything is confidential. Ethical hackers share their findings of any security vulnerabilities with their clients—and only with their clients. They also use this data to assist the company to strengthen their network defenses.
Ethical hackers always get permission from the companies they hack. Certified ethical hackers work with and are employed by the organizations they hack. This means that there is a clearly defined contract and service level agreement on the scope of the CEH’s activities, including hacking timelines, the methods they will use, and the assets to be tested.
Ethical hackers operate within the law. True to their names, ethical hackers only use legal methods to assess information security. Though some argue against ethical hacking’s limitations, it is crucial that CEHs maintain a firm distinction between what is right and what is easy.
An ethical hacker can help you understand your network vulnerabilities from an attacker’s point of view. While there are many ways to assess your cybersecurity, having an ethical hacker gives you a more personalized view of how threat actors could exploit various vulnerabilities in your organization. This may provide valuable insights that traditional security prevention measures may miss. For example, a certified ethical hack will head head-to-head with your firewalls and cryptography algorithms and see exactly how these defenses work in practice and where there are limitations.
Conversely, you can use NinjaOne’s #1 RMM software solution with its built-in tools to improve endpoint security. Trusted by 17,000+ customers worldwide, NinjaOne automates the hardest parts of IT to deliver real-time visibility, security, and control over all your endpoints. Its endpoint security tool helps you manage applications, remotely edit registries, deploy scripts, and mass configure devices in a single pane of glass.
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