(upbeat music)
- The word hacker
was first used at MIT in 1960.
During that time a group of computer science students
were working on artificial intelligence.
Most likely these talented young individuals
would hack at a problem until they had a solution.
The term hacker was not associated with any malice.
However, as time has passed, when someone refers to a hacker
it often has a negative connotation.
And many think of a hacker as someone
who is trying to break into a system
to steal information or release malware.
Now there's an entire subculture of hacking groups,
all have different attitudes and goals.
Many times someone will group all hackers
under the term hacker, but there is a difference.
The three main types of hackers are
the black hat, the gray hat and the white hat hacker.
Black hat hackers are considered to be the bad guys.
A black hat may also be referred to as a cracker,
as they may try to crack the code or crack a password.
A black hat has an objective to cause harm
by engaging in criminal activity.
Many times they're backed by organized crime
or even a nation state.
The black hat operates on the dark side of the internet
damaging organizations, spreading unsavory content
and threatening governments with cyber terrorism
and can cripple a victim's financial wellbeing.
White hat hackers are considered to be the good guys
as they are ethical hackers.
The white hat hacker has the support of government
and industry and are computer experts.
Many times they are contract employees
hired by security companies
and are trained to test systems
and attempt to break into them.
But they can also be an internal team
conducting regular penetration testing
as part of an overall security plan.
Ethical hackers diligently look
for any system vulnerabilities
in the computer's defense system.
Which, once identified, is reported
so they can mitigate the vulnerabilities,
either by the white hat hacker team
or the appropriate IT personnel.
With the idea of improving the company's defense posture.
A gray hat hacker sits between the good guys
and the bad guys, in that they may try to gain access
to a system without permission,
but in general, without malice.
It's many times, they want to see
if they can access the system.
A gray hat hacker will many times
notify an organization in some manner
that their system was vulnerable.
Black hat hackers have a large arsenal
of software tools, malware and social engineering techniques
used to breach a system.
Anyone, either internally or externally
with proper motivation and the right situation
has the potential to become a hacker.
And that's the idea of the white hat
or ethical hacking comes into play.
Ethical hacking enables an organization
to fine tune their security posture,
educate their staff and implement security practices
that protect critical systems and sensitive data.
Ethical hacking requires advanced security
knowledge of security weaknesses, vulnerabilities
and remediation options.
An ethical hacker's job is to identify vulnerabilities.
Ethical hacking can be done either in-house
by a trained IT professional or outsourced.
As outsourcing may be expensive,
a company may choose to do
an ethical hacking assessment in-house.
If done in-house, select an appropriate candidate.
Although someone might self identify
as a potential white hat hacker,
take care in making your selection.
Recommendations include selecting someone who
understands the skills required.
Ethical hackers uncover vulnerable entry points
before attackers have a chance to exploit them.
They have patience and persistence.
Not only do ethical hackers need to
find the vulnerabilities, they must suggest
and or implement methods to reduce the threat.
And ongoing training is essential.
They respect the code of good conduct.
The term ethical implies that the candidate
understands what is right and what is wrong.
The candidate understands checking and reporting
are to happen only to team members and management
and not to a group of friends at a bar after hours,
which would possibly compromise
the security of the organization.
And the candidate is a professional team member,
in that the ethical hacker is proficient
in communicating any discoveries
and will work with all team members
to ensure a comprehensive approach
that supports the overall security plan.
Ethical hacking continues to evolve
and is gaining attention as an essential security practice
that every organization should perform on a regular basis.
(upbeat music)