How about Ethical Hacking?!

Sample these news headlines...

• 112 government websites hacked in 3 months
• Security breach: Hackers steal 90,000 US military email Ids
• Security breach forces NIA website shutdown
• Hackers hit Citigroup card data
• EMC's security breach may cost customers $100m
• Sony loses credit card details to hackers

And of course, (apart from these nefarious news pieces), heard the latest about ISC and CBSE results database being hacked by a college student? (Details at the end of this article).

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Hacking is a glaring reality today, every hour hackers attack networks for their nefarious means. The world is losing trillions of dollars annually, an amount good enough to revive a country's economy.

Organizations attacked by hackers lose business and their customers' faith. If the customers feel their information is not secure with an organization, they will refrain from dealing with the company and not purchase any product or service from the company.

A hacker uses software programmes to find an open port to gain access to a network/ computer. Once he finds an entry, he can use your computer to steal your data or money.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Now how would you imagine the prospects of making a career out of hacking? We are serious and we are talking about Ethical Hacking. These are experts who can prevent cyber attacks on an organization's network and computer system. Ethical Hackers use the same techniques and tactics as those used by other hackers, but not to breach security systems. They enable a company to prevent an attack/intrusion before it ever occurs. Therefore Ethical Hacking is an aggressive mode of attack on its own network to prevent data leaks. A large number of organizations including the likes of IBM, TCS, WIPRO, Reliance, Cognizant, Palladion Networks, etc are reaping the benefits of hiring ethical hackers.

It might sound strange that a company is willing to pay someone to try to break into their system, but Ethical Hacking today makes a lot of sense. As we do quality checks for products to maintain standards, similarly to test the robustness of any network, we need ethical hacking.

With the increasing need to brace up information security, organizations - be it government, financial institutions, armed forces, security agencies, etc - must be able to identify and face each security threat and come up with security policies and processes. They must consider taking advantage of ethical hacking which is getting popular as an important security practice.

Training on Ethical Hacking

There are various organisations which train people for ethical hacking. Among the best is a US based organisation, EC Council. They are the world leaders in Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification. They are DoD 8570 and ANSI certified. They have their ATCs (Accredited Training Centres) across the globe. With presence in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune in India, they have QUIK (Quest Institute Of Knowledge) as one of the best training centres.

Last but not the least, click here to check the latest from the college student who hacked ISC and CBSE result data: Hacking into the Indian Education System.