Hacking: Good or Bad?

Through media portrayal, logical misconceptions, and emotions of fear, hacking has gotten a bad reputation. Consequently, most people think of hacking as a crime, but the truth is hacking can legally be a great asset. Ethical hackers, also known as white hats, use their skills to secure and improve technology. They provide essential services to prevent possible security breaches by identifying vulnerabilities.

Just like any computer program, testing is necessary from a hacking perspective as well. Ethical hackers do this testing by mimicking what a malicious hacker could do. First, they gather information and look for vulnerability points in the program. This initial search can be automated or done manually. However, ethical hackers often don’t stop at just identifying the vulnerability. Ethical hackers also continue to see how a malicious hacker could exploit a vulnerability. Usually, after conducting these steps, they will provide a detailed summary of problem points and advice on solutions. This last step is what most distinctly separates malicious and ethical hackers. While malicious hackers intend to harm a company or its customers, ethical hackers provide a chance for redemption for these companies.

Ethical hacking has priceless impacts. Using ethical hacking, one can secure their data from enemies. An example of where ethical hacking is considered crucial is for the safety of the nation. Through ethical hacking, we can stop cyber-terrorism attacks and any major government data breaches. Overall, ethical hacking has global ramifications that help protect the computer science world as security concerns increase.