IT 1: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing - Detailed Analysis

This assignment provides an overview of ethical hacking and penetration testing, essential concepts in cybersecurity. It differentiates between white hat, black hat, and grey hat hackers, explaining their roles and motivations. The assignment highlights the importance of ethical hackers in strengthening system security, referencing how companies like Google and Microsoft utilize them. It also touches upon the legality of ethical hacking and the skills required to perform penetration testing, emphasizing the need to understand the methods of black hat hackers. The provided references further support the concepts discussed in the assignment, offering a deeper understanding of the subject matter. This assignment serves as a valuable resource for students studying cybersecurity, offering insights into the practical application of ethical hacking principles.

Running Head: IT 0
Ethical hacking and penetration testing

IT 1
Ethical hacking and penetration testing
Hacking usually refers to an unauthorised intrusion into a network or computer
system. Hacker is often misused and not completely understand term. Not all hackers are
inherently bad and when working in cybersecurity field, they can be categorised as white hat
hacker, black hat hacker and grey hat hackers. An individual can be termed as black-hat
hackers who tries to gain unauthorized entry into a network or system so as to exploit them
for malicious reasons. They do this to steal or gain access to a password, personal data or any
other financial information. On the other side, white-hat hackers are reckoned to be the good
guys, working with companies to strengthen the system security and therefore, also referred
to as ethical hackers (Mansfield-Devine, 2018). Fortune 50 companies such as Google,
Microsoft and Facebook also used white-hat hackers to strengthen their security programs
and applications. There is also a grey hat hacker placed between somewhere between a White
Hat Hacker and Black Hat Hacker. These hackers did not have any sort of malicious intent
however, also exploits computer systems and network. In simple words, a grey hat hacker
performs his actions similar to white hat hackers, however, illegally.
Ethical hacker actually attempts to penetrate a network or computer system with
showing similar skills just like black hat hackers and they study black hat hackers to exploit
weaknesses and vulnerabilities in various systems (Rathore, 2015). The role of an ethical
hacker is identical to a penetration tester however, it includes broader duties and this makes
the key difference between them as - the legality. It is also important for the white-hat
hackers to learn the ways and practices of black hat hackers so that to use exact same hacking
techniques under the legal procedure and check the place to see where there is any need for
the improvement.

IT 2
References
Mansfield-Devine, S. (2018). Hacking democracy: abusing the Internet for political
gain. Network Security, 2018(10), 15-19.
Rathore, N. (2015). Ethical hacking and security against cyber crime. i-manager's Journal on
Information Technology, 5(1), 7.