Ethical Hacking
Is hacking always illegal? Read to know!!
Nowadays terms like Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity are quite viral. You might wonder what this means. So in this article, I will make you aware of the term Ethical Hacking.
Legally breaking into systems and services to know vulnerabilities is known as Ethical Hacking. The main purpose behind Ethical Hacking is to enhance cyber security by knowing vulnerabilities and improving them before Black/Gray hat hackers step in. In case, if the system is hacked, ethical hackers defeat bad hackers by checking logs and records.
Now you may wonder who are Black, gray hat hackers. So there are three types of Hackers: White Hat, Black Hat and Gray Hat.
-White Hat Hackers: Hackers who use their skills to find vulnerabilities in hardware, software and network.
-Black Hat Hackers: Hackers who use their skills to damage the system. Damage may be done in many ways like deleting important files, stealing confidential information or earning profit. They are also known as Bad Hackers.
-Gray Hat Hackers: They are a fusion of both white and black hat hackers. They use their skills to find vulnerabilities in hardware, software and network without the owner's permission and may report to them for fixing issues. They are not always an ethical Hacker.
Moving forward, let me enlighten you about various Types of attacks on a system. There
Operating System Attacks: These attacks exploit vulnerabilities within the system's operating system, compromising its security.
Misconfiguration Attacks: When configuring a system, overlooking certain settings or leaving them at default values can create vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
Application Level Attacks: These attacks target the application layer, taking advantage of bugs or security holes within specific software applications.
Shrink-Wrap Code Attacks: This refers to attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in pre-packaged or off-the-shelf software, commonly known as "shrink-wrapped" code.
As you encounter the term "vulnerability" while reading, you might find yourself pondering its meaning within the context of security. So, vulnerability stands for a flaw that could be exploited or activated by a threat source in a system's implementation, internal controls, security protocols, or implementation.
That concludes my discussion on ethical hacking. So, moving forward, when you come across the term "hacker," don't be alarmed. Remember, they could very well be referring to a white hat hacker!
