WHY DO COMPANIES NEED ETHICAL HACKERS?
The rapid technological change has brought with it a number of issues. One of the issues that it has brought is the issue of increased cybercrime conducted by black hats. Black hats target almost everyone, but we will mainly focus on attacks which occur in organizations. Hackers take advantage of the fact that more and more organizations are turning to the internet to interact with their customers, because of this the amount of critical data moving around systems is growing faster. The more information that is exchanged using technology, the more are companies putting themselves in danger of falling victims of such attacks.
The lack of awareness of data security is a contributing factor to the rapid increase of successful attacks conducted by people known as hackers. So we ask ourselves, who are these hackers and why do they do what they do? Black hat hackers also known as crackers are people who usually conduct planned attacks that are designed to steal critical information and destroy data. They gain un-authorized access to systems with the intention of causing malicious damage.
Hackers do what they do:
-To show the extent of their knowledge
-For thrill and excitement
-To get even
-Curiosity
-For financial gain
-Intellectual challenge
Hackers being the intellectual beings that they are, they manipulate and bypass security systems without being detected by the organizations. Organizations rarely notice when there has been a breach of security this goes to show how smart hackers really are. Why do companies keep falling victims of such attacks? Most companies rely on defense tools such as firewalls, anti-virus software’s, DPI firewalls, etc. as defense that protects their confid...
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...cedures when employing ethical hackers, they need to ensure that the process is conducted in terms of a contractual agreement that sets out the scope, boundaries, limitations and other specifics to the assignment.
• At the end of the contract all the information that is related to the work of the ethical hacker must be destroyed to prevent the hacker from getting any unauthorized access in the future.
• Organizations must regularly check up on the activities of ethical hackers, they must form part of the team and not lack behind on what is happening in their business.
Organizations need to start to reconsider employing ethical hackers in their business environments. The employment of ethical hackers is not only good for the organizations, but is also good for the ethical hackers because they will be earning an honest living.
Works Cited
www.ethicalhacker.com
The use of hacking to identify weaknesses in computer security has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years. Awareness of this issue is important, because our ever increasing reliance on technology means that breaches in computer security have the potential to have wide-ranging and devastating consequences to society, worldwide. This essay will begin by clearly defining the term ‘hacking’ and will examine the type of people who hack and for what reasons. There will then follow a discussion of the moral argument on hacking before examining a few brief examples. The essay will then conclude by arguing against the use of hacking as a means of identifying weaknesses in computer security.
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Harvey, Brian. A. Computer Hacking and Ethics. Ed. Paul Goodman, P.G., a.k.a. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
In the early years of computers and computerized technology, computer engineers had to believe that their contribution to the development of computer technology would produce positive impacts on the people that would use it. During the infancy of computer technology, ethical issues concerning computer technology were almost nonexistent because computers back then were not as multifaceted as they are today. However, ethical issues relating to computer technology and cyber technology is undeniable in today’s society. Computer technology plays a crucial role in all aspects of our daily lives. Different forms of computer technology provide unique functionalities that allow people to perform daily activities effectively and efficiently. In modern society, we use computer and cyber technology to communicate with friends and family via social networking sites, participate in business transactions, and get current news. Different tasks require unique technological feature in computer technology to function properly. Although, unique technological features increase people’s proficiency in accomplishing various tasks, unique technological features in computer and cyber technology increase security vulnerabilities. In many cases, the security vulnerabilities in computer technology are exploited by cybercriminals to invade people’s privacy, and steal people’s identity. We know that computers have no moral compass; they cannot make moral decisions for themselves. Essentially, people make moral decisions that affect others positively or negatively depending on how they use computer technology. Some of the biggest ethical issues facing people in the computing environment include privacy concerns on the web and identity theft. Privacy concerns...
The knowledge of an ethical hacker is much comparable to one of the real hacker. Inorder to hack a system in an ethical way, it is known that some of the black hats have been converted to white hats and now they are using their knowledge for security. It is controversial to hire ex-hackers as an ethical hacker. After all, ethical hacker must be a trustworthy person which will see sensitive information. The work of an ethical hacker is to discover the customer’s weak point by accessing the sensitive and confidential customer information. Even though hackers, which may know the craft and have connections to the underground for getting the newest tools and exploits will be not employed by many companies. As the uncertainty and risk is too high formers hackers will not be employed for doing ethical hacking. As it is stated that, an ethical hacker is a person on whom you can trust. There should be 100% certainty that the information found by the ethical hacker won’t be abused. Patience is another very important ability. Professional hackers are very patient and persistent. To find a piece of information which could help them for hacking a system, they will just listen to network traffic or scan through newsgroups for days. As most contractors don’t want to pay for such an extensive listening phase, most hackers won’t do it. Therefore the important thing for an ethical hacker is to keep up
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