Whenever we hear the word “Hacking” we think it is related to hackers who try to get inside your system or network through unfair means. Today we will discuss hackers who work on your side and play a vital role in safeguarding your business from potential online attacks by finding loopholes in your security. You can too become such a hacker, the first step in your journey could be a Certified Ethical Hacker course from a reputed institute.
Cybercrime is a major issue for businesses, and protecting data is a big matter of concern. If you want to prevent stealing you will have to think like thieves. That is where Ethical Hackers come into action, as they have a mindset and skills like those of Malicious hackers, but they work under a strict set of rules and regulations and try to break into your system to find loopholes in your cyber security.
Table of Contents:
– What is Ethical Hacking?
-Phases of Ethical Hacking
-Benefits of Ethical Hacking
-How can Ethical Hacker benefit business
-Conclusion
What is Ethical Hacking?
Ethical hacking is defined as the permitted circumvention of security and system firewalls in order to identify weaknesses in your system that may pose a risk if an unauthorized cyber attack occurs.
There are Black Hat Hackers that want to exploit your sensitive data by breaking into your system, and Ethical Hackers who utilize their hacking knowledge to fight against internet threats and improve overall network security.
Ethical hacking is also referred to as penetration testing because both are responsible for identifying and documenting potential flaws in the system before they are exploited with the company’s approval.
Phases of Ethical Hacking
Let’s discuss different phases of Ethical Hacking:
Planning: In the first phase, the hacker will build a target profile and will try to get as much data as possible related to the target. This can vary depending on the target’s reputation and what kind of attack is to be conducted.
Scanning: In this phase, hackers collect data using scanning tools that record the response of operating systems when they come into contact with any intrusion made by the hacker. These scanning methods provide a static analysis that scans the complete code of the application in order to track the behavior of the application. The benefit of this step is that hackers get a real-time view of performance data.
Gaining Network Access: With all the data/information collected in previous phases, hackers now will find loopholes and try to get unauthorized access to the targeted network. The goal is to extract as much sensitive information as possible.
Maintain Access: Once the hacker has network access, it becomes important to maintain a persistent hold of it. Sometimes, it may even take up to 200 days before a data breach is recognized and controlled, and for ethical hackers, this phase is a key indicator of how to react in situations when a network/system gets compromised.
Analysis: The final phase involves getting rid of all evidence related to data breaches. This phase will be used for documenting the steps, results, identified loopholes, and remediation actions. This information can now be used for developing application patches and also for configuring web application firewalls (WAF).
Benefits of Ethical Hacking
With the help of Ethical hacking, you can make your network more secure, as it makes you aware of potential risks your security system might have.
You get a better understanding of how a hacker thinks and the strategies he might use to get into your network, providing you with one step ahead of him.
With Ethical hacking practices, you can get a better idea of how your firewalls or data loss protection protocols are functioning.
Also, while developing new applications, Ethical hacking can help developers implement certain measures to make apps more secure.
How can Ethical hackers benefit businesses?
Ethical hackers can educate the IT team of a company regarding various practices and trends that hackers use. Also, Ethical hackers can train on techniques and tools which are used while making unauthorized access to a network or system. This will help the IT team to better understand how a hacker attacks.
Ethical hackers can also test the company’s pre-existing cyber security defense system to locate any possible vulnerabilities.
It will be hard to guess when a security breach takes place, but we must always be prepared to face any kind of online attack. Ethical hackers make sure your business is well-prepared in case of an attack.
For a company safeguarding client information, business deals, confidential data, and trade secrets are very important. Ethical hackers can assess the security level at which the data is stored and can provide the required steps to make it even more secure.
Conclusion
Data movement to the cloud has also increased the vulnerability of corporate data. Businesses want ethical hackers because they understand hackers and help businesses avoid the significant expenses associated with mitigating the effects of intrusions. Ethical hackers are also required since they can offer cybersecurity workshops and handle security issues in advance.
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