Ethical hacking

Hacking has been a part of computing for almost five decades.The first non event of hacking had taken place in 1960 at MIT.

Hacking is the act of finding the possible entry points that exists in a computer system or a computer network.

Hacking is usually legal as long as it is being done to find weaknesses in a computer or network system for testing purpose this sort of hacking is what we call "ETHICAL HACKING"

Ethical hacking refers to the methodology adopted to find loopholes in information system.

The prime purpose of ethical hacking is to prevent sensitive data from falling into enemy hands. It safeguards your company from blackmail by those willing to exploit the vulnerabilities. Via real world testing you vmcan enhance your digital network security and prevent security breaches.

USES OF ETHICAL HACKING

Ethical hacking is an emerging tool used by the most of the organisations for testing network security. The security risks and vunerabilities in a network can be recognised with the help of ethical hacking. 

All because of this the post of ethical hacker is in demand. Ethical hacker is an IT professional who purposely penetrates network and system to find and fix potential vulnerabilities.

DANGERS OF ETHICAL HACKING 

✓ Ethical hacker might use the information to do the malicious acts.

The ethical might use the information obtained from an ethical exercise to damage the company or develope a similar system. This is the deterimental to an organisation since it threatens the organisation autonomy over its information.

✓Exposes financial and banking details of a company 

Ethical hacking exposes a company's financial and banking details to the people who are conducting the ethical hacking excercise. Some ethical hackers may sell this kind of information to other companies who are undertaking similar business. This put the organisation at the brink of collapse since the company success secrets are known.

✓Ethical hacker may add a malicious code into the computer system

Some ethical hackers might at a one point add a malicious code, virus or malware into an organisation computer system. Such viruses n malware Will corrupt the normal operation of a program n might as well as lead to low system performance.

ADVANTAGES OF ETHICAL HACKING 

✓It helps fight terrorism n national security breaches

Ethical hacker will always hack into the website of various terrorist group n obtain information regarding the activities of group. Various security measures are taken by the relevantor stakeholders to ensure the terrorists do not go with their plan. 

Ethical hacking eliminates the cases of national security breaches. It ensures that an organisations computer system is more secure n robust n less prone to malicious hacking threats.

✓ Lead to adoption of preventive measures

After conducting an ethical hacking test, relevant measures can be adopted that will ensure security of organisation information.

For example the recent hacking of the international criminal court email system by some hackers prompted the ICC to develop n adopt measures that guarantees maximum information security

✓ Leads to a computer system that is secure 

Data n results obtained from an ethical hacking exercise can be used to identify the loopholes n flaws in a organisation computer system. Such flaws are then rectified n the result is a robust n more secure system.

For example relevant software n hardware will be added to the computer system in order to boost the security level of the computer system.

✓CONCLUSIONS 

Ethical hacking is purely based on the trust and honesty of the ethical hacker, hence when entrusting the task of ethical hacking in the hands of ethical hacker, it is of great importance that an organisation should carefully select a trustworthy individual to conduct the exercise.

The main focus n goal of ethical hacking should be geared towards improving system security n note unmasking a company's secretes. 

In order to guarantee data security, an organisation need to understand how to conteract the threat posed by malicious hacker. Organization should also be at the forefront in adopting new technology that gurantees maximum information security.

The main conclusion is that with the increasing internet usage and increased applications on internet, the security of data quite important.

Kinds of Hacker

• White hat Hackers
• Grey hat Hackers
• Black hat Hackers
• MIscellaneous Hackers