Ethical Hacking: Defense Mechanism, Operation, and Applications Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of ethical hacking as a defense mechanism and operational strategy. It begins with an introduction that outlines the report's objectives, followed by a detailed discussion of the mechanisms involved in ethical hacking, including planning, reconnaissance, enumeration, vulnerability analysis, and exploitation. The report then explores various applications of ethical hacking, such as web application security, protection against malware (viruses and Trojans), and securing wireless infrastructures. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of ethical hacking in safeguarding information and networks. The report highlights ethical hacking as a crucial tool for organizations to test and improve their security postures, replicating the actions of malicious hackers to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.

Running head: ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
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ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Mechanism of ethical hacking...................................................................................2
Applications of ethical hacking..................................................................................4
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6
References......................................................................................................................7

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ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
Introduction
This report aims to discuss the topic ethical hacking as a defense mechanism and
operation. A brief discussion of the mechanism of the ethical hacking process is provided in
this report. The applications of ethical hacking is clearly discussed in this report. Lastly, this
report concludes with an appropriate conclusion.
The method of ethical hacking is a developing tool that is used by the organisations
for testing the security of the network. The vulnerabilities and the risks of security in any
network is recognised with the method of ethical hacking. Information is the major resource
of several organisations in the present times (Abu-Shaqra and Luppicini 2016). The
government and the organisations need to adopt the methods of ethical hacking for securing
the sensitive documents and the confidential information. A professional of ethical hacking
needs to be hired for testing the efficiency of the networks (Engebretson 2013).
Discussion
Mechanism of ethical hacking
The ethical hacking denotes to the task of locating the vulnerabilities and the
weaknesses of the informations systems and computers by replicating the intent and the
actions of the malicious hackers (Baloch 2014). This variety of hacking can also be referred
as the testing for penetration, intrusion testing, and red teaming. Any ethical hacker is the
security expert who implements the talents of hacking for reasons of defense on part of the
owners of the informations systems. Operation of an ethical hacker is strictly monitored by
the permission of the organisations and they basically operate under the supervision of the
organisation.

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The process of ethical hacking consists of strictly follows a sequence for obtaining a
legal and usable result:
Planning: This part of hacking is essential to have a successful project. It delivers an
opportunity for providing key understanding to the task at hand, allows in setting goals for
the future, and it also allows a risk assessment for evaluating the running cycle of a project
(Pike 2013). There are numerous factors that needs to be considered for executing the
planning phase of any ethical hack. These factors can include regulations and laws, culture,
best practices, the requirements of the industry, and the policy of security. Every one of these
factors acts as an integral part in the process of decision making when the ethical hacking is
considered. The planning phase of any ethical hack would impact profoundly in the process
of hack and the information collected and shared, and it will directly influence the integration
and deliverable of the results in the program of security (Crosbie 2015).
Reconnaissance: This phase of searching for the publicly available information for
assisting in any attack. It can be a simple or the newsgroups of browsing on internet in the
exploration of resentful employees who are interested in sharing the secret information or
increasingly messy as the task of digging is done (Regalado et al. 2015). The reconnaissance
consists of the tapping phones, networks and engineering. The option of searching is
restricted only by the extremes by which the ethical hacker and the organisation are interested
in undertaking the task of recovering the information that is required (Shah and Mehtre
2013). This phase of reconnaissance creates the connection among the tasks that needs to be
completed and the techniques that are necessary for protecting the information and assets of
the organisation (Trabelsi and McCoey 2016).
Enumeration: This phase is also called as the phase of discovery of vulnerability or
the network. This is the task of gaining the sensitive information, networks and application

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that is publicly accessible from the system of the target (Rathore 2016). It is essential that the
phase of enumeration is basically the point where the line among the malicious attack and
ethical hack can grow to become blur as it is common to deviate from the planning phase
(Wu 2014). Basically, the process of enumeration is simple and easy as it consists of some
basic task of collecting the data and perform an evaluation of the data completely for
establishing a concrete plan to increased investigation or matrix creation of vulnerability
analysis phase (Trabelsi and Ibrahim 2013). Moreover, the enumeration phase is where the
ability of the ethical hacker in making logical deductions acts as a major factor.
Vulnerability analysis: For the effective analysis of data, any ethical hacker should
deploy some pragmatic and logical method. In the phase of analysis for vulnerability,
information that is collected is matched with the identified vulnerabilities in some applied
process (Juneja 2013).
Exploitation: Considerable time amount is expended in the preparation and the
evaluation of any ethical hack. Definitely, the planning will be used for attacking a target
system (Chowdappa, Lakshmi and Kumar 2014). The exploitation of any system can be
simple as executing any small program or it can be difficult as the series of complicated
sequences that needs to be executed in a specific method for gaining access (Wang and Yang
2017). The process of exploitation is segregated into a collection of subtasks that can contain
several steps or any single step in executing the attack (Rao et al. 2014). As the execution of
each step is done, the evaluation is conducted for ensuring the expected outcome is generated.
Applications of ethical hacking
Ethical hacking is accomplished for testing the safety in the systems. This method can
be utilised in several applications in the situation of applications on the web that are often
damaged (Curbelo and Cruz 2013). This commonly includes the applications of HTTP or

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Hypertesxt Transfer Protocol and the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) that are most
often attacked as majority of firewalls and several other security consists of total access to the
programs residing in the internet. The illegal software consists of the Trojan horses and
viruses that can damage a system (Sahare, Naik and Khandey 2014). Spam is the kind of junk
e-mail that causes needless and violent disturbance on the system and the carry the virus,
therefore the ethical hacking helps in the revealing these kinds of attacks against any
computer system and delivers the security of system (Schreuders and Ardern 2015). The
major application of ethical hacking is to offer security on the infrastructure that is wireless
and this is the main intent for several businesses. The sector of ethical hacking has emerged
to be a crucial sector in the organisations who are intending to check the technical and
intellectual capability against any malicious attackers (Trabelsi and Alketbi 2013). The
methods of ethical hacking plays a crucial role in offering security. The resources and the
computer services that can perform the tasks without the users. Another application of ethical
hacking is to gain access to the network and infrastructure of any other company (Prasad and
Manjula 2014). This offers the security in the information technology area referred as
infosec. This offers security for the high level attacks like the traffic that is passing through
the firewalls and the viruses.

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ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the methods of ethical hacking is essential is
securing the information and the networks. The method of ethical hacking is a developing
tool that is used by the organisations for testing the security of the network. The
vulnerabilities and the risks of security in any network is recognised with the method of
ethical hacking. The ethical hacking denotes to the task of locating the vulnerabilities and the
weaknesses of the informations systems and computers by replicating the intent and the
actions of the malicious hackers. This method can be utilised in several applications in the
situation of applications on the web that are often damaged. This commonly includes the
applications of HTTP or Hypertesxt Transfer Protocol and the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) that are most often attacked as majority of firewalls and the security has total
permission to the internet programs.

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ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
References
Abu-Shaqra, B. and Luppicini, R., 2016. Technoethical Inquiry into Ethical Hacking at a
Canadian University. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 7(1), pp.62-76.
Baloch, R., 2014. Ethical hacking and penetration testing guide. Auerbach Publications.
Chowdappa, K.B., Lakshmi, S.S. and Kumar, P.P., 2014. Ethical hacking techniques with
penetration testing. International journal of computer science and information
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Crosbie, M., 2015. Hack the cloud: Ethical hacking and cloud forensics. In Cloud
Technology: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1510-1526). IGI Global.
Curbelo, A.M. and Cruz, A., 2013. Faculty Attitudes toward Teaching Ethical Hacking to
Computer and Information Systems Undergraduates Students. In Proceedings of the Eleventh
LACCEI Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology.
Engebretson, P., 2013. The basics of hacking and penetration testing: ethical hacking and
penetration testing made easy. Elsevier.
Juneja, G.K., 2013. Ethical hacking: A technique to enhance information
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Pike, R.E., 2013. The “ethics” of teaching ethical hacking. Journal of International
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Prasad, M. and Manjula, B., 2014. Ethical Hacking Tools: A Situational Awareness. Int J.
Emerging Tec. Comp. Sc. & Elec, 11, pp.33-38.

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Rao, G.S., Kumar, P.N., Swetha, P. and BhanuKiran, G., 2014, December. Security
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ETHICAL HACKING AS A DEFENSE MECHANISM AND OPERATION
Trabelsi, Z. and McCoey, M., 2016. Ethical hacking in Information Security
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