Ethical Hacking: Why It’s Important & What Makes a Good Hacker

What Is ethical hacking?

Ethical hacking is a practice where authorized actors work to discover vulnerabilities in systems and networks. This is performed in cooperation with the owner of the systems being evaluated, ensuring that it is done legally and without harming systems or data.

The goal of ethical hackers is to identify weak points in an organization’s information security posture before malicious actors discover those points. Hackers do this through the collection and analysis of system data during attempts to penetrate defenses.

In this article, you will learn:

• Why is ethical hacking important?
• Types of hackers
• Guidelines for ethical hackers
• Ethical hacking techniques
• Certified ethical hackers

Why Is ethical hacking important?

Ethical hacking enables organizations to test and improve their security measures proactively. It can help organizations stay up to date on current hacking techniques and tools, and ensure defenses are correctly configured to prevent breach.

Additionally, ethical hacking can provide a good training ground for security team members. While ethical hackers try to breach systems, security teams can stresstest their defences and practice their abilities. This includes abilities to detect malicious activity, track that activity through a system, and isolate threats. With ethical hacking, you can access true to life training scenarios that don’t risk your data, even if security practices don’t hold up.

Related content: read our guide to cyber kill chain to understand how ethical hackers analyze and simulate advanced attack techniques

Types of hackers

There are three main categories that hackers fall into, depending on their intentions and actions. These categories include white hat, black hat, and grey hat.

White hat hackers
White hat hackers are people who hack for good reasons. They are commonly hackers who are paid to work as security specialists, penetration testers, and security analysts. These actors may work for a single organization or as contracted workers but only perform hacking when the system owners authorize it. The goal of white hats is to help organizations identify vulnerabilities and strengthen security.

Black hat hackers
Black hat hackers are what most people think of when they think of a hacker — but these are specifically cybercriminals. These are actors whose intent is to gain access to systems that they are not authorized to enter for personal or financial gain.

Gray hat hackers
Grey hat hackers sit somewhere in the middle. These can be actors who work to penetrate systems that they are not authorized to access, but generally without malicious intent. Typically, these actors notify system owners, communities, or enforcement agencies of any vulnerabilities they discover.

Both white hat and gray hat hackers may ask for bug bounties or require organizations to disclose vulnerabilities to communities. If organizations choose not to pay a reward or disclose, they will not cause direct harm. Instead, they may release vulnerability information on public forums to force security actions.

Another practice that falls under grey hat hacking is when actors seek out those who have been hacked by others. In these cases, grey hats may offer to help organizations get rid of malicious actors or vulnerabilities in exchange for a fee.

Guidelines for ethical hackers

To operate ethically, hackers must follow specific guidelines and rules to ensure that their actions remain responsible. While these rules may vary depending on the organization the hacker is working for most guidelines include the following:

• Hackers should gain authorization from system owners before taking any action.
• Hackers should outline the scope of their efforts and inform the system owner.
• Any breach or vulnerability found should be reported to the system owner.
• Any information gained during penetration testing should be kept confidential through a non-disclosure agreement.
• All traces of penetration testing efforts should be erased to avoid leaving clues for malicious hackers.

Related content: read our guide to penetration testing

Ethical hacking techniques

When performing penetration testing on a system, ethical hackers can and should use any skills or tools available to malicious hackers. The exception is if those tools or skills cause unavoidable harm to systems or others. Commonly used techniques include:

• Use of port scanning tools to identify open or unsecured ports
• Testing update processes to determine if malicious code or software can be included in updates or processes
• Using packet sniffers and other analysis tools to evaluate network traffic for leaks or insecurities
• Applying tools or practices designed to bypass intrusion detection or prevention systems and firewalls

Ethical hackers may also implement social engineering techniques to test how competent users are at detecting malicious efforts to gain information. This can involve searching for information on social media, in public repositories, or in person when walking through facilities. However, it should not include harmful techniques such as threats or extortion.

Related content: read our guide to threat hunting

Certified ethical hacker programs

Determining the qualifications of ethical hackers can be challenging since many useful skills are not standard in security training. However, some certification programs are targeted at ethical hacking skillsets and competencies.

• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) — a vendor-neutral certification designed to test penetration testers. This certificate focuses on network security and covers over 270 attack methods and technologies. To qualify for this certificate, professionals must have attended an official training by the provider (EC-Council) and have at least two years of experience in information security.
• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) — a certification designed to prove competence in the management and development of enterprise information security programs. This certification is offered by ISACA and is intended for IT consultants and information security managers.
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) — this certificate is designed for candidates in risk management, governance, and information security fields. The certificate is provided by ISACA and requires five years of experience in information systems security, control, or auditing.
• GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) — a certification aimed at low to mid-level security professionals. It is designed to prove that candidates have information security knowledge and skills beyond basic levels. The Global Information Assurance Certification organization provides this certification.

Improving your information security with Exabeam

An ethical hacker can help identify and close gaps in an organization’s security posture, but attackers can still find their way in. Tools like security information and event management (SIEM) are essential to helping security teams identify and respond to day-to-day security incidents.

Exabeam’s Security Management Platform is easy to implement and use, and includes advanced functionality per the revised Gartner SIEM model:

• Advanced Analytics and Forensic Analysis—threat identification with behavioral analysis based on machine learning, dynamically grouping of peers and entities to identify suspicious individuals, and lateral movement detection.
• Data Exploration, Reporting and Retention—secure log data retention leveraging modern data lake technology, with context-aware log parsing that helps security analysts quickly find what they need.
• Threat Hunting—empowering analysts to actively seek out threats. Provides a point-and-click threat hunting interface, making it possible to build rules and queries using natural language, with no SQL or NLP processing.
• Incident Response and SOC Automation—a centralized approach to incident response, gathering data from hundreds of tools and orchestrating a response to different types of incidents, via security playbooks. Exabeam can automate investigations, containment, and mitigation workflows.

Exabeam enables SOCs, CISOs, and InfoSec security teams to gain more visibility and control. Using Exabeam, organizations can cover a wide range of information security risks, ensuring that information remains secure, accessible, and available. Learn more about Exabeam’s next-generation cloud SIEM.

Learn More About Information Security

Read more in our series of guides about information security topics.

• What Is Information Security? Goals, Types and Applications
• The 8 Elements of an Information Security Policy
• PCI Security: 7 Steps to Becoming PCI Compliant
• Cloud Security 101/a>
• What Is Threat Hunting? A Complete Guide
• IT Security: What You Should Know
• Machine Learning for Cybersecurity: Next-Gen Protection Against Cyber Threats
• Penetration Testing: Process and Tools
• Cyber Kill Chain: Understanding and Mitigating Advanced Threats
• Defense In Depth: Stopping Advanced Attacks in their Tracks