Ethical Hacking

Abstract

The word hacking has a negative impact on the reader or listener. It reminds us of people with stealing vital information and identities and using them for illegal causes. But that’s not always the case. Hacking can also bring a positive change in the society and reduce the negative impacts. This is called ethical hacking where the hacker complies with the rules and regulations. There are various tools and techniques used by hackers.

What is Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking is a process of finding out vulnerabilities in an application or an organization’s infrastructure that a potential attacker can use to exploit an individual or organization.

A hacker is a person who steals the private information of an individual or a business and gains advantages from it from their digital device or network using a variety of hacking tools.

Types of hackers

  1. Black hat hackers: also called criminal hackers, these hackers are cybercriminals who breaks into computer systems with criminal and hostile intention. They are skilled in advanced technical knowledge and have the ability to find vulnerabilities and cause serious harm.
  2. White hat hackers: also called authorized hackers, white hat hackers are cybersecurity professionals who have the authority to hack systems and use their skills to find vulnerabilities in organizational networks and computer systems. They are usually hired by businesses and governments.
  3. Grey hat hackers: They hack into systems and networks without following the rules nor with any malicious intention. They hack just for fun. If they find any vulnerabilities, they’ll inform the owner.
  4. Script kiddies: amateur hackers who don’t have advanced skills or experience. They use malware created by other hackers to carry out attacks.
  5. Green hat hackers: also called as hackers-in-training, they are just introduced to the world of hacking and focuses on improving their skills and expertise.
  6. Blue hat hackers: Blue hat or authorized software hackers are employed by businesses to test and check a new software for bugs before it’s released. Their job is to find vulnerabilities and rectify them.
  7. Red hat hackers: they are government-hired hackers entitled to spot vulnerabilities in security systems and also to hunt for black hat hackers. They use similar tactics as black hat hackers to track them down.
  8. Nation sponsored hackers: these people are hackers are appointed by the government of one country to acquire access to another nation’s computer systems..
  9. Whistleblower hackers: are hackers who perform a cyberattack from within the company or business they work for. Ex: to expose an organization’s illegal activity, etc.
  10. Botnets: Botnet hackers are hackers who make bots to carry-out high intensity attacks across as many devices as possible. They usually target IoT (Internet of Things) devices like routers and cameras. These bots look for unsecured devices to plant themselves in.
  11. Gaming hackers: are hackers who use their skills to launch attack on their competitors or cause DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks to push them out a game.
  12. Cryptojackers: are hackers who use their skills to find vulnerabilities and exploit resources as a method to mine for cryptocurrencies.
  13. Elite hackers: hackers who have the highest skillset and expertise and considered pioneers and experts in the world of hacking.
  14. Hacktivists: a blend of a hacker and activist, hacktivists utilizes their skills to attack government systems to emphasize or point out towards a certain social or political cause.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is an activity that requires testing applications for security vulnerabilities. Penetration tests can be used to oppose and capture hackers before they cause any harm or damage. Penetration testers design various tests and tools and conduct and run security tests on a variety of networks and servers. They also pin down potential hacking methods used by hackers in near future. They’re responsible for spotting security breaches and loopholes.

SQL Injection

SQL injection could be a code injection approach for attacking data-driven systems that involves inserting malicious SQL statements into an entry field and executing them. SQL injection must profit of a software security flaw, like when user input is erroneously checked for string literal escape characters encoded in SQL statements or when user input isn’t strongly typed and executed unexpectedly. SQL injection attacks allow attackers to spoof identity, tamper with existing data, cause repudiation issues like voiding transactions or changing balances, allow complete disclosure of all data on the system, destroy the info or make it otherwise unavailable, and gain access to the database server’s administrators.

Footprinting

This method, aslo known as reconaissance is used to collect information about the computer systems. To obtain this information, hackers use various techniques like DNS queries, Network enumeration, Network queries and Operating system identification. One software used by hackers to practice footprinting is Wireshark.

Conclusion

Ethical hacking strengthens the computer and network security by using various testing methods. It helps one to take preventive measures against illegal hackers and their exploitations.

References