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Why do We Need Ethical Hacking? Need and Importance

Updated on 01 July, 2022

11.82K+ views
10 min read

The rising cybercrime can impact national security in the future, which is why government organizations, as well as other reputed organizations, hire ethical hackers.

Although hacking is mostly associated with criminal activity, that's not always true. This is because some hackers use their skills to crawl into companies' security systems and derive sensitive information. Well, of course, that is illegal. But, the true values of hacking remain a mystery to most. There are hackers, also known as Ethical Hackers, appointed to identify loopholes in a system.

These issues have enlightened ethical hacking importance now and then. This article details ethical hacking, the need for ethical hacking, why ethical hacking is important, and the types of ethical hacking.

Learn the best tools, techniques, tips, and tricks to help students ensure the safety of the world's most significant corporations from phishers, hackers, and cyber threats with the CEH training online. 

What is Ethical Hacking? 

Ethical hacking involves good hackers acquiring access to the system or data to safeguard the critical data. Part of carrying out an ethical hack is using all the skills to know the behaviors of malicious attackers. 

Pen testing or penetration testing are used in ethical hacking to secure the data. Ethical hacking uses invasive procedures to identify dangerous and severe cyber security vulnerabilities that might be discovered and exploited by an unknown attacker.

This hacking can harm important data, resulting in a crisis in a business. Loss of necessary data equals losing a hard-won reputation or even billions of rupees. To safeguard companies from such a situation, ethical hacking exists. They attempt to identify security flaws and faults in an organization's security system before malicious hackers do. 

The precise meaning of hacking is finding holes in the system firewall and exploiting them to get unlawful access to undertake harmful actions. For example, hackers who can get past the protection might erase or steal critical data that can harm the organization or a person. 

But on the other side, ethical hacking is a permitted form of hacking. Firms engage computer professionals to examine system security, find flaws, and provide recommendations for improving the firewall. It also serves as a tool for government entities to identify and track potential national security threats. 

The EC-Certified Council's Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification program is a well-respected and well-trusted ethical hacking curriculum. Certified Ethical Hacker has become one of the most excellent solutions for industries and enterprises worldwide since its beginning in 2003. 

Today, Certified Ethical Hackers may work for some of the best and most prominent corporations in healthcare, finance, government, energy, and more! 

Need For Ethical Hacking

To save personal and confidential material from intruders, ethical hacking subsists. Hackers try to steal important data, which can be stopped by ethical hacking. Tracking vulnerabilities and threats to confidential data are possible only if a business uses ethical hacking.

The government authorizes ethical hacking to prevent intelligence information on influencing politics, a hostile state, and other topics from reaching the people. Every nation's security is the top priority, and ethical hacking helps to ensure that cyber-terrorism and terrorist assaults ethical hacking is avoided. 

Ethical hacking helps keep business and government organizations out of trouble caused by hackers trying to steal important data. If the hackers invade privacy, they might be able to blackmail or leak data. By increasing digital network security, one can easily avoid security breaches by doing real-world testing.

It gives a great benefit if precautionary methods are taken in advance by all the firms. By working on safety, one can easily ensure that the clients and customers have all of their faith in one's organization. Hackers are clear and know all the potential entry points to enter the system. It is essential to repair those entry points to avoid a crisis. 

Ethical hackers tend to use quality assurance testers and have created tools and procedures to help speed up the detection and eradication of all system flaws. 

It can assist owners in identifying problems inside the organization's firewall or system safety. It also enables companies to assess security from a hacker's perspective, rectifying any vulnerabilities while they threaten the achievement.

Regardless of the scandal involving the notion, malware analysis assists firms and governments in protecting sensitive data from unfriendly hands. Their multiple benefits and relevance suggest that, as digitizing increases, stronger security techniques are essential to improve cybercrime. 

With the advancement of ethical hacking new job opportunities are now available for the people who are interested in ethical hacking. 

Why Ethical Hacking Is Important

Given today's market, there are numerous malware analysis opportunities accessible. There in the enterprise, cyber terrorism is very useful for evaluating software solutions. Ethical hacking ensures that almost all facilities are safe against black-hat hackers. Unfortunately, cyber-attacks are increasing day by day.

Many large corporations and systems have been compromised. For example, the Uber website was recently hacked. As a result, around 50 million people's personal information became public. 

Organizations of all sizes try different security precautions to secure their safety and protection; however, merely locking doors and closing windows will not assure safety. In today's environment, businesses must take proactive precautions and regularly upgrade their security. It is better to safeguard the data before any crisis. Hackers have all the solutions to steal data creatively. Ethical hacking helps in preventing such a situation. 

Being the white hat hackers, ethical hackers safeguard the client's data. They ensure all the safety measures to keep the firm's data safe and secured. In simpler words, ethical hackers hack the system and ensure that all the company's data remains safe. Due to this preventive method to keep the data secure, the data actually remain secure. This stops critical data theft in the company. 

Ethical hacking can help companies find the flaws in their software security. However, one must look at their cybersecurity from a hacker's viewpoint and fix issues, or they can become a problem for the firm. 

Types of Ethical Hacking

With every system, website, and technology advancement, it is obvious that a hacker can hack every system. To understand the next step of a hacker, an ethical hacker must know all the tricks and tips well. In addition, the ethical hacker should know each strategy to safeguard the data from the hacker. For a better understanding of types of ethical hacking are mentioned below: 

1. Web application hacking

Web apps are popular owing to the widespread availability of web browsers and the ease with which they may be used as clients. Several of the major reasons underlying their popularity is the capability to upgrade and administer web apps while having to download programs on potentially thousands of client computers, as well as the inherent support for cross-platform compatibility. Frequent web applications include webmail, online retail transactions, online auctions, wikis, and various other services. 

Internet hacking is altering a program's graphical web interface, tampering with the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or messing with HTTP components not contained in the URI to attack it through HTTP. Additionally, Digital systems may be hacked via SQL injection attacks, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Site Request Forgeries (CSRF), Insecure Communications, and other means. 

2. System Hacking

Any infiltration into software applications to control answers to the victim machine and steal or misuse confidential material is known as network hacking. In this case, a hostile hacker takes advantage of flaws in a computer system or network to obtain unauthorized access to data or gain an unfair advantage. 

A hacker can access a computer system because they are familiar with how computers and software function. A hacker needs an understanding of systems, networking, and other areas of computer science to do this. Anyone who uses a computer and is linked to the internet is vulnerable to the risks of unscrupulous hackers.

3. Social engineering

Social engineering is the art of inducing anyone to reveal personal data. The attacker deceives individuals into disclosing sensitive information by exploiting basic human nature like trust or a lack of understanding. Social engineering has become a common (and extremely successful) method of determining how vulnerable an organization's employees are to ethical hacking. When applied ethically, social engineering can help uncover flaws and solve staff security concerns more effectively. A social engineering mandate also aims to establish solutions to improve the worldwide degree of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the company's data. 

4. Hacking wireless networks

Wireless networks provide several benefits, including connections beyond walls, wireless connectivity, quick internet access even in locations where installing cables is problematic, speed, and sharing. However, wireless networks have several drawbacks, the most serious of which is the lack of security. Wireless networks are convenient and popular, yet they are vulnerable to attack due to inadequate setup and encryption. Hackers can leverage Wi-Fi flaws to get access to the entire network. Security experts must be able to identify, block, and defeat such threats using the most up-to-date technologies and procedures. 

5. Web Server Hacking

When a hacker is practicing ethical hacking, they are looking for flaws. For example, an ethical hacker may attempt to obtain illegal control of a web server for various purposes, the most important of which is to test the server and its software for vulnerabilities. Through this, one can try to access a server using the same tools and methods that bad attackers use. If the hacker is successful, they can determine which repairs and updates are required to strengthen security and detect and respond to harmful behavior. 

Conclusion

Enhancement of technologies is also increasing security threats which have opened so many ways for a hacker to intrude whenever they want to. The ways of stealing data have also increased with time, and now hackers have devised creative ways to intrude and steal confidential and important data. All the firms who have taken preventive measures can save their image from getting spoiled when important data is leaked. These measures will help the firms to maintain their trust in the eyes of their clients. 

Ethical hacking has a great scope in the future. One should learn ethical hacking because this will help to save the data of bigger firms in the future. Those interested in ethical hacking can profit by doing the right hacking for the firms and the government. 

Ensure the Knowledgehut’s Cyber security course details are accredited by organizations like CREST or the EC-Council, as the Certified Ethical Hacker credential is the industry standard.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the advantages of ethical hacking?

The following are some of the benefits of ethical hacking- 

  • Ethical hacking helps to save the nation from cyber terrorism and all kind of cyber threats. 
  • Ethical hacking helps to stop a hacker from intruding into a system. 
  • It can safeguard the data of Banking and financial institutions. 
  • Ethical hacking helps find and close the opening gaps through which a hacker can enter and steal the data. 

The best part is the degree needed for ethical hacking is quite achievable. A 10th or 12 graduate can pursue ethical hacking.

2. What are the types of ethical hacking?

Since practically every system component may be hacked, there are several ethical hacking procedures. These 'hacking' performances need a thorough understanding of that component. A list of distinct ethical hacking approaches may be found below. 

  • Web application hacking 
  • Social engineering 
  • System hacking 
  • Hacking wireless networks 
  • Web server hacking 

3. Why do we need ethical hacking?

With the exponential development of cybercrime, organizations, and enterprises must devise a strategy to combat the danger. Because of security flaws, the company's systems are vulnerable to malware. The quantity of viruses, ransomware, worms, and malware is increasing as technology advances, necessitating ethical hacking. 

Businesses can utilize ethical hacking to protect themselves from unauthorized access. Since this hacker has no prior knowledge of the company other than what they are given, it also provides an unbiased analysis of its security architecture. Ethical hackers must find security holes in systems, evaluate access points, and evaluate goals, among other things. Ethical hackers also create techniques for corporations, defense contractors, and government organizations to protect sensitive information. 

4. Is there any certification to learn ethical hacking?

In India, one won't find any specific course on Ethical Hacking but will find an ample number of courses relevant to the same. The list of courses is widely classified into three categories, i.e., Bachelor's Degree, PG Degree, and Certification.

Once one has completed the 12th examination and secured a minimum of 50% marks, they can opt for several hacking courses after the 12th, like BTech, Diploma, BSc, MSc, and MTech. However, note that the requirements and qualifications of each are different.

Knowledgehut has developed an amazing course that will teach about ethical hacking.