Ethical hacking has been a buzz for a while. But what exactly is ethical hacking? And where does it come from? All this you will get to know in this blog.
Early in the 1960s, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there was the first known incidence of hacking. Since that time, hacking has become a widely practiced discipline within the computing industry.
The term “Hacker” was used to identify professionals who redeveloped mainframe systems, boosting their productivity and enabling multitasking.
The phrase now frequently refers to talented programmers who, driven by malice or mischief, use vulnerabilities or faults to obtain unauthorized access to computer systems.
There are mainly two kinds of hacking; ethical and unethical. From the term unethical hacking, it is clear that stealing important data or seeking financial gain is the main motivation behind this kind of hacking.
But not all kinds of hacking activities are bad. The second kind of hacking is ethical hacking, which brings us full circle. Now let’s deep dive into the topic of what is ethical hacking, why it is needed, and its many phases.
Table of Contents
ToggleAMPIntended to uncover potential data breaches and network risks, ethical hacking is a legitimate method that involves finding vulnerabilities in an application, system, or organization’s infrastructure.
Hacking is prohibited and, if you’re caught doing it, can have serious repercussions. Because of hacking, individuals have received lengthy prison sentences. However, if done with consent, hacking may be acceptable. This is called ethical hacking.
Companies frequently hire computer specialists to hack into their systems and identify the weak endpoints and rectify them. To protect against legitimate hackers with harmful intentions, ethical hacking is performed.
The 6 phases of ethical hacking are as follows:
It is the procedure for gathering data. The hacker gets pertinent data about the intended system during this stage. This information consists of finding services, operating systems, the number of packet hops needed to get to the system, IP setup, and so on.
The hacker starts actively scanning the target device or network for exploitable security flaws. Hackers frequently employ programs like Nessus, Nexpose, and NMAP in this operation.
The vulnerability is identified throughout this procedure, and the hacker tries to exploit it to gain access to the machine. Metasploit is the main tool employed in this procedure.
It is the action taken once a hacker has already accessed a system. After obtaining entry, the hacker installs a few backdoors so she can return to the system in the future if she needs access to this owned machine. The preferred tool for this process is Metasploit.
It is unethical to engage in this practice. Throughout the hacking process whatever activities are performed by the hacker are deleted at this stage.
The process of ethical hacking comes to a close with this stage. In this instance, the ethical hacker creates a report containing her findings and the work completed, including the tools used, the rate of success, the vulnerabilities discovered, and the exploit procedures.
Ethical hackers are supposed to follow the below-mentioned rules:
After getting an understanding of what ethical hacking is, its phases, and its key concepts, let’s go through its key advantages:
There are some demerits associated with ethical hacking, which are as follows:
To carry out hacking effectively, an ethical hacker needs to have a thorough understanding of all systems, networks, program codes, security measures, etc. Some of the skills required to be an ethical hacker are:
Given that it necessitates a thorough understanding of every component of a system or network, ethical hacking is a difficult field to study.
With the help of this blog, you now have a better understanding of what ethical hacking is, its merits, demerits, and skills required to become a good ethical hacker.
Now, if you want to enter the field of cybersecurity, you may do so with ease by obtaining the necessary ethical hacking certificationsAMP and advancing your career in the field.
Hi! I am Shekhar, a professional web & mobile app developer with expertise in MEAN Stack, Next.js, React.js, and React Native. Being interested in working with different IT technologies, I always look forward to learning something new and challenging. Along with JavaScript, I also know several other programming languages, including Python and TypeScript.