What is ethical hacking?
Ethical hacking represents a group of skills within cyber security that manifests in a few distinctive roles, including pen testers, blue teamers, and purple teamers. Ethical hackers are also part of a larger group known as white hat hackers, whose focus is education and defense. We will discuss this in detail in the White hat hackers section later in this chapter.
What role does the ethical hacker play in organizational security? Unlike threat actors (black hats), who are motivated primarily by financial gain, ethical hackers align themselves on the defensive side of networks, attempting to secure networks by pointing out flaws and misconfigurations that malicious attackers would take advantage of. They are commonly associated with penetration testing but really can assume any role within an organization. Ethical hackers represent the apex of security practices within an organization. These practices start with core areas such as antivirus software and patch management and move on to more complex security issues such as remote automation and administration, as well as ingress and egress, encryption, and authentication.
Depending on their specific role, ethical hackers use a variety of tools and techniques to search for outdated software, misconfigured systems, and potential security weaknesses within the network. They use this information to not only bolster the overall organizational security but to find weaknesses and oversights that attackers would find by using the same techniques they use. Some other operations ethical hackers perform include discovering incomplete policies and procedures. They are also skilled in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of adversaries. This means they understand how attackers operate, what tools they use, how they find information, and how they use that to take advantage of an organization. Ethical hackers also realize security is an evolving discipline where learning and growth never end. One place to get a better understanding of attackers and the operations they perform is to review the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which lays out a matrix of 13 categories showing various attacks. For more information, see https://attack.mitre.org/.
How does one become an ethical hacker? There are several approaches that can be taken, including using this book, and courses covering hacking and cyber security that can get you started. There are also certifications, including the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH). However, even with all these opportunities and paths that can be taken, the one thing needed more than anything else is just to be curious – about how all this technology works, how information is stored and communicated, and how technology interoperates with other machines and devices.
Now that we know what ethical hacking is, let’s take a look at what makes up information security.
