- Definition
- Protocols an ethical hacker follows
- Steps of ethical hacking
- 10 Skills required for ethical hacking10 Skills required for ethical hacking
Definition
Ethical hacking is an authorized practice of exploiting a computer/company’s infrastructure in order to understand and build software for protection from potential future attacks.
The process is actually really simple. At the most basic level of ethical hacking, An ethical hacker is supposed to test a computer/system by seeing it’s performance on various kind of attacks. If the system can’t do well against a particular kind of attack, the ethical hacker is supposed to report that to their client and IF allowed, can apply techniques which may prevent similar kind of attacks.
Protocols an ethical hacker follows
There is generally only one thing an ethical hacker must keep in mind -STAYING LEGAL. There are different kinds of hacker like, mainly black hats(bad guys) and white hats(good guys). So you can say, ethical hackers fall in the category of white hats. Ethical hackers are supposed to be a helping hand of the cyber security of a company.
Steps of ethical hacking
1. Reconnaissance
This is the first step of ethical hacking. It involves collecting as much data about the target system as you can in order to understand and gain insight about the infrastructure of the system. This could be anything including – knowledge about people working in the company, some key information about the company from their social media handles, types of computer and routers used etc.
2. Scanning
In this process, the hacker try to probe the target system or it’s network in order to find vulnerabilities that can be exploited in a stealthy manner. Things which might be scanned are PORTS, Operating systems, etc.
3. Gaining access
This is the first step where the hacker enters the target system by exploiting the vulnerabilities found. This is in fact the place which differentiates a white hat from a black hat. A white hat here would probably record all the problems and vulnerabilities of a system whereas a black hat might try to DO malicious activities like inserting viruses and, corrupting the system, in a way, stealing information, manipulating the data in the system etc.
4 . Maintaining access
A hacker might try to JUST manipulate the system or he can be willing to maintain the access to the target system for the future, even without the user having no knowledge about it.
5. Clearing Tracks
Hackers would never want to leave their footprints behind. This is can cause great trouble. A hacker would want to erase all the traces so it won’t be noticeable for the real user to know that anything even happened.
6. Reporting
NOT DONE BY THE BLACK HAT(of course), an ethical hacker is supposed to report everything to their client. From how/she performed the attack and how it can be prevented.
10 Skills required for ethical hacking
Following are some skills/topics worth knowing before diving into ethical hacking.
- Networking – Of course, everything happening , at the most basic level is connecting one computer to other. You must know the basics of how computer connect and the devices related
- Basic knowledge of computer applications
- Operating Systems(LINUX being the most used and useful)
- Basic Hardware Knowledge
- Programming skills
- Database skills
- Reverse engineering
- Cryptography
- Problem solving skills
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