Ethical Ethics Of Ethical Hacking - 2141 Words

Abstract In today’s interconnect world the threats posed by hackers is growing. One of many tools organizations have at their disposal is a unique group of hackers. Ethical or White Hat Hackers intent is to discover vulnerabilities from a malicious attacker’s viewpoint. Ethical hacking involves the same tools, tricks, and techniques that malicious hackers utilize. White Hat Hackers use penetration testing in order to test the security of an organizations communications infrastructure. The one difference is White Hat hackers have the organizations permission to test the vulnerability of the organizations systems. Ethical hacking is one part of an organizations overall information risk management program. Ethical hacking allows the†¦show more content†¦A person only needs to look at the news daily to see that not one person or organization is safe from the threat posed by hackers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) information stolen recently only highlights the threat of such actors. The OPM hack took personal records for any government employee whom had a security clearance provided by the United States government. The infringement of personnel data by a group of hackers only raises the concern of privacy for a majority of security clearance holders. Organizations have to look at all options to securing networks and data to ensure the security mechanisms that are in place stand up to persistent threats. Most organizations can spend extraordinary amounts of money to secure data and networks, but still leave vectors that a hacker can exploit. Once all security aspects are in place a good resource is then to bring in ethical hackers or White Hat hackers in to test the security of the system. The goal of ethical hacking is to uncover vulnerabilities from an adversary’s point of view so the security system can be improved. Ethical hacking should be part of the organizations overall information risk management program, which allows for constant security improvements. In the security life cycle, ethical hacking can be viewed as a security assessment. Ethical hacking shows the