Ethical Hacking

Ethical Hacking

Introduction

The term "hacker" has a dual usage in the computer industry today. Originally, the term was defined as: HACKER in two different terms. First is, A person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems and how to stretch their capabilities as opposed to most users of computers, who prefer to learn only the minimum amount and necessary (Palmer, 2001). Second is, the one who programs enthusiastically or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.

This complimentary description was often extended to the verb form "hacking," which was used to de scribe the rapid crafting of a new program or the making of changes to existing, usually complicated software.

As computers became increasingly available at universities, user communities began to extend beyond researchers in engineering or computer science to other individuals who viewed the computer as a curiously ?exible tool. Whether they programmed the computers to play games, draw pictures, or to help them with the more mundane aspects of their daily work, once computers were available for use, there was never a lack of individuals wanting to use them.

Because of this increasing popularity of computers and their continued high cost, access to them was usually restricted. When refused access to the computers, some users would challenge the access controls that had been put in place. They would steal passwords or account numbers by looking over someone's shoulder, explore the system for bugs that might get them past the rules, or even take control of the whole system. They would do these things in order to be able to run the programs of their choice, or just to change the limitations under which their programs were running (Logan and Clarkson, 2005).

Initially these computer intrusions were fairly benign, with the most damage being the theft of computer time. Other times, these recreations would take the form of practical jokes. However, these intrusions did not stay benign for long. Occasionally the less talented, or less careful, intruders would accidentally bring down a system or damage its files, and the system administrators would have to restart it or make repairs. Other times, when these intruders were again denied access once their activities were discovered, they would react with purposefully destructive actions (Smith et al., 2002). When the number of these destructive computer intrusions became noticeable, due to the visibility of the system or the extent of the damage in?icted, it became "news" and the news media picked up on the story. Instead of using the more accurate term of "computer criminal," the media began using the term "hacker" to describe individuals who break into computers for fun, revenge, or profit. Since calling someone a "hacker" was originally meant as a compliment, computer security professionals prefer to use the term "cracker" or "intruder" for those hackers who turn to the dark side of hacking. For clarity, we will use the explicit terms "ethical hacker" and "criminal hacker" for the rest of this paper.

Discussion

What is ethical hacking?

With the growth ...