Thursday 25 June 2015

Ethical Hacking Helps in Increasing Organization̢۪s Security System

Having such hackers in the organization would help the organization to know the loop holes which are harmful to the organization's security systems. There are many companies and organizations which hire ethical hackers who are expertise in their field of hacking. There professional use their ways of hacking either the computer hardware or software, or both. In this process, the organization would know the loop holes that let the unethical hacker to get into the security system of the organization. These loop holes will then be covered by developing other software which protect the organization's data. Once these loop holes are covered the hackers would again try to break through the security system and check the other loop holes which let the outside hackers get into the organization's network.

Ethical Hacking is mostly used for Security Evaluation. In United States Air Force of the Multics operating systems for "potential use as a two-level (secret/top secret) system€. Their evaluation found that while Multics was "significantly better than other conventional systems," it also had "... vulnerabilities in hardware security, software security, and procedural security" that could be uncovered with "a relatively low level of effort€. The reports hence had a result of tightening the security system as the intruder could get into the system in some ways.

The term hacker refers to a person who tries to invade into the security system of an organization and tries to hack or steal the passwords of a computer or a user who uses the computer and changes the data of the computer or the user. The effects of hacking would be changing the passwords of the user and not letting the user take the ownership of the computer or the data. The person who tries to invade into the computer without permission is called as intruder. Organizations hire such professional hackers and evaluate their security system time to time; so that they can cover up the loop holes from which any other hacker can get into their security system. Unethical hacking leads to hacking the data and then modifying them. But in ethical hacking, the hackers are hired by the organization to figure out the loop holes from which the security system can be breached. Once the security system is hacked, the hackers would let the administrator know about the loop hole and would then cover the loop hole with some security software so that other hackers would not get into the system illegally.

Ethical hacking is also known as white hat method and unethical hacking is known as Black hat methods. The organizations hire ethical hackers who are specialized in the field and are certified into it. There are Grey hat hackers who are not hired by the organizations, but these hackers would eventually hack the system and let the organization know that the system can be hacked with certain method. These hackers then make a deal of disclosing the method and the way to protect the system in order to not to get hacked in such way.

Article Source - http://goarticles.com/article/Ethical-Hacking-Helps-in-Increasing-Organization-s-Security-System/6345058/

Thursday 18 June 2015

Ethical hacking- What is the need to learn

This process is done by computer and network experts called Ethical or white hat hackers. These people analyze and attack the security system of an organization with the intention of finding and exposing weaknesses that crackers can exploit and take advantage of. It is important to understand that unlike crackers, ethical hackers get permission from the relevant authority to go on and test the security of their information system. Crackers cause harm and loss to an organization and affect negatively to the integrity, availability and confidentiality of an information system. So how did the concept of ethical hacking came up and how is it done?

The field of Ethical Hacking has been there in the computer world now for a while. Today, this subject has continued to gain much attention due to the increasingly availability and usage of computer resources and the internet. This growth and expansion of computer infrastructure has provided another avenue for interaction and so has attracted major organizations in businesses and governments. These bodies want to fully take advantage of the benefits offered by technology so that they can improve the quality of service they offer to their customers. For example organizations want to use the internet for electronic commerce and advertising among others. On the other hand governments want to use these resources to distribute information to its citizens. Even though they want to utilize this new potential that has been enhanced by technology there is fear of security. Organizations fear the possibility of their computer information system being cracked and accessed by unauthorized people. On the other hand potential customers and users of these services worry about the safety of the information they are prompted to give. They fear that these information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, home addresses and contacts will be accessed by intruders or outsiders who are going to use their data for other purposes outside the one that was intended. By so doing their privacy is going to be inter-feared with, something that is not desirable to many people if not all.

Due to the above raised fear, organizations sought to find a way to approach and counter this problem. They came to discover that one of the best methods they can use to limit and control the threat posed by unauthorized personal to a security system is to employ independent professionals in security matters to try the security measures of a system. In this scheme, hackers use the same tools and techniques used by intruders but they do not damage the system nor do they steal from it. They evaluate the system and report back to the owners the vulnerabilities their system is prone to. They also recommend what needs to be done to the system so as to make it more secure.

As evidenced from above, ethical hacking go hand in hand with security strengthening. Though it has done much in increasing security matters, still more needs to be done. It is impossible to obtain absolute security but even though, doing nothing to computer security is dangerous and undesirable.

Article Source - http://goarticles.com/article/Ethical-hacking-What-is-the-need-to-learn/6460947/