Ethical Hacking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical Hacking - Research Paper Example An ethical hacker will attempt to hack his way through a company’s internet security system so that any weaknesses within it can be found. Companies, which use ethical hackers, do so in order to boost their security against individuals whose aim might be to bypass its security system for malicious purposes. There are, however, rules, which should be strictly followed in order for this hacking procedure to be considered ethical. The first of these is that the hacker must only conduct the hacking if he has been given permission to do so by the company’s management and this requires that he be given a written consent, in case of any issues that may arise later. Secondly, the ethical hacker must be able to ensure that he does not violate the privacy of the individuals or the company for who he is working, and should instead only deal with the security issues that are encountered. The hacker must ensure that all the security vulnerabilities that the company has are reported to its administration so that the necessary steps can be taken to secure the company’s network from malicious hackers. ... It is a situation where the ethical values concerning hacking are judged not by the normal definitions of the actions but through its positive aspects. Using this definition, it can be stated that the morals are no longer absolute when dealing with matters concerning hacking, because it is no longer necessarily a matter of its being malicious, but also of its being used for the enhancement of network security (Langley, 2005). A good number of the proponents of this theory believe that morality can now be used to describe hacking, since there are those who might do it for good as well as malicious purposes. The fact that ethical hacking has now become a part of the normal corporate life should not be underestimated since ethical hackers have now become an integral part of the fight against illegal and malicious hacking. The realization of this fact is one of the reasons why many companies are increasingly employing ethical hackers in order to protect their systems (Palmer, 2001). One of the advantages of ethical hacking is the fact that a broad range of threats are realized early and steps are taken to repair them. Since there are a wide variety of network threats from hackers, it is easier for a company, through ethical hacking, to deal with these threats before they become unmanageable, or before any damage to the network is done. Moreover, ethical hacking promotes the fact that not all hackers are malicious and that in fact, there are those hackers out there who can be used as a force of good through their helping to protect vulnerable network systems from malicious hackers (O'Boyle, 2002). Since it is the society which judges what is right or wrong, the it is therefore easier to categorize hackers in such a way that there