Understanding ethical hacking

Know your hacker

We shouldn’t jump to conclusions when it comes to both malicious and ethical hackers. Hackers aren’t always who you think they are, as the Michael Calce example showed you. Every hacker is different – from their skillsets through to their motivations. Some are driven by self-interest, others by an agenda, or even because they’re ethical hackers and it’s their career. There have also been cases where malicious cyber criminals have even gone on to work in ethical hacking to help businesses instead of hinder them.

One group that are well-versed in capturing the world’s attention through hacking are Anonymous. Although they can’t be considered as ethical hackers, the group often take a very public stance on socio-political issues, leading to the coining of the term ‘hacktivist’ and inspiring many computer savvy youngsters to use their skills for something greater than self interest.

Types of hackers

White Hat

These are your ethical hackers, employed by businesses to discover security flaws. They then offer remediation advice for how a business can improve its security standpoint. They usually hold ethical hacking and penetration testing accreditations, and never do things without an owner’s authorisation first – consider them the ‘good guys’.

Black Hat

The ‘bad guys’. They break into systems for self interest or to add to the goals of the hacking group they belong to. These types of hackers don’t seek permission first, and often steal and sell sensitive data on the black market. The experience of these hackers can vary, from one end of the scale with opportunistic hackers that use low-effort tools to exploit a simple security flaw they’ve found in a business, through to elite hacking teams that actively seek out lucrative targets.

Grey Hat

Usually operating on their own terms, a grey hat hackers are a bit in the middle of a black and a white hat hacker. They may break into a system without authorisation, see what damage they could do, but then produce a report for the business in the hope of reimbursement. It’s a bit like being an opportunistic freelancer.

What is ethical hacking?

A key way that businesses can prevent being breached is by discovering their security flaws themselves before a malicious hacker does. This is where ethical hacking comes into play. Ethical hackers, also commonly known as penetration testers, are employed by businesses to find vulnerabilities and produce a report on what they’ve found, consequently preventing the disruption and damage that a real attack would have caused.

What are the goals of ethical hacking?

The primary goal of ethical hacking is to measure the security and find vulnerabilities within a business’s network, infrastructure and IT systems. By finding vulnerabilities to exploit, penetration testers can identify whether unauthorised access can be gained to a business's computer systems.

The 5 phases of ethical hacking

1. 1. Reconnaissance: This initial phase is all about gathering key information about a particular IT system. Here, the hackers try to learn all they can about its network components, operating systems, connected and active devices, access ports, and cloud data storage.
2. 2. Discovery and scanning: Similarly, to reconnaissance, this phase is also focused on gathering information but this time a wide array of tools are incorporated into the process, such as vulnerability scanners. Hackers will typically use a variety of programmes like network mappers and vulnerability scanners that will provide them with detailed data to help plan a sophisticated cyber attack.
3. 3. Access and exploitation: Considered by many to be the key phase of the operation, this step, also known as a Vulnerability Assessment, involves exploiting the vulnerabilities found in the two previous phases to connect to a target and attack it in the most efficient way possible. Some examples of cyber attacks carried out by penetration testers are denial of service attacks (DDoS), session hijacking or buffer overflow attacks.
4. 4. Keeping (or maintaining) access: This entails the pen testers establishing backdoors for easy access back to the IT system. That way, they won’t have to go through the entire process of getting access again. The difficulty of creating backdoors is also assessed as a vulnerability in its own right
5. 5. Covering the tracks: The final step which mimics a real-life cyber attack involves penetration testers concealing evidence that could give away their presence within the system, such as deleting log files and other digital footprints.

Is ethical hacking safe?

Although hackers are normally surrounded with negative connotations, there are ‘good guys’ out there. Ethical hacking is not only safe for your business, but can be highly beneficial in fixing security flaws before they’re exploited.

You could privately hire a penetration tester for your business, in which case ask for an ethical hacking certification or a previous employer’s recommendation. But for an even safer approach, use a penetration testing company. They will have trustworthy and reliable white hat hackers as salaried employees and their broad experience will mean you get a thorough test of your infrastructure or application.

If you’re still unsure, look for penetration testing companies that have ISO 27001 as this highlights that they take their security seriously. You can also look out for highly respected qualifications such as CREST and Tigerscheme, then you can be sure you’re in safe hands.