Is Ethical Hacking the Answer to Ensuring the Safety of Company’s Computer Systems?

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Introduction Modern society relies more on computers and the Internet now than ever before as a means to exchange information. Computer infrastructures are continually evolving and developing which has lead to an increase of reliance on technology, and an increasing amount of personal data being shared between computers and over the Internet. For these reasons it imperative to keep these infrastructures safe from those who do not belong or mean to cause harm, commonly called hackers. Hackers are people who gain unauthorized access to someone else’s computer. Hacking is wrong when financial or personal gain is achieved (Jamil and Khan 2011), but there are three types of hackers. ‘White Hats’ are hackers who use their computer skills for ethical reasons, ‘Black Hats’ use their skills in unethical or illegal ways and ‘Gray Hats’, also known as vigilantes or hacktivisits (Hackers 2009), their skills to investigate criminal activity but perform it in an illegal manner. Who is affected by computer hacking? Anyone with a computer, including smart phones, can be a victim of hacking. Examples of those who have been affected are big name companies (Target, Twitter, and Facebook), heads of government, (Angela Merkel), and unsuspecting members of the public (Trojan viruses or worms). One approach to increasing computer security is by ethically hacking. An “ethical hacker” is someone who hacks into computers in order to spot security vulnerabilities without the intent of causing harm. This essay will provide arguments for and against the use of ethical hacking to identify weaknesses in computer security. Ethical Hacking to Expose Security Flaws The main argument for ethical hacking is that companies are able to decrease their loss of sensitiv... ... middle of paper ... ...Hackers Types." Retrieved 15 November, 2013, from http://www.hackersonlineclub.com/hackers-types. Jamil, D. and M. N. A. Khan (2011). "Is Ethical Hacking Ethical?" International Journal of Engineering Science 3. Pashel, B. A. (2006). Teaching students to hack: ethical implications in teaching students to hack at the university level. Proceedings of the 3rd annual conference on Information security curriculum development, ACM. Saleem, S. A. (2006). Ethical hacking as a risk management technique. Proceedings of the 3rd annual conference on Information security curriculum development, ACM. Smith, B., W. Yurcik and D. Doss (2002). Ethical hacking: the security justification redux. Technology and Society, 2002.(ISTAS'02). 2002 International Symposium on, IEEE. Spafford, E. H. (1992). "Are computer hacker break-ins ethical?" Journal of Systems and Software 17(1): 41-47.

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