Ethical Hacking: Impact on Business, Society and Technology

This essay delves into the realm of ethical hacking, exploring its techniques, benefits, and far-reaching societal impacts. It begins by defining ethical hacking as a defensive measure against malicious cyber threats, emphasizing the role of white hat hackers in identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities within computer systems. The essay highlights the importance of ethical hacking in business operations, particularly in safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the security of IT infrastructure. It covers topics such as perimeter intrusive penetration testing, internal network scanning, and vulnerability assessment. Furthermore, it explains how ethical hacking helps in detecting deficiencies in technology, protecting confidential data, and improving IT system security. The essay underscores the legal and ethical aspects of hacking, emphasizing the need for permission from system owners and the importance of ethical considerations. It concludes by advocating for the adoption of ethical hacking methods by organizations to enhance their IT security and protect against cyberattacks. The essay also references various academic sources to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of ethical hacking and its significance in today's digital landscape.

Running head: ETHICAL HACKING
Ethical Hacking
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1ETHICAL HACKING
Ethical hacking is a technical way of identifying the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a
computer system by duplicating the intents and the actions of an illegal hacker. By the process of
ethical hacking, an ethical hacker tests the security of the computer system and tries to
implement specific ways by which hacking can be stopped (Bechtsoudis & Sklavos, 2012). The
ethical hackers or the white hat hackers use the technique of hacking as a defensive tool (Prasad
& Manjula, 2014) on behalf of the owners of the system. The white hat hackers or the ethical
hackers checks the data of the system and detects the holes in the security system to identify
those data that have the risk of getting accessed by the malicious hackers. In this essay we are
going to talk about the benefits of ethical hacking and how this can help in the advance of the
society. Checking of the different things like the data that are visible to the hacker, what a hacker
can do with the accessed data is done along with checking the possibilities of getting any type
notifications if any hacking attempts are made (Bansal & Arora, 2012).
There are various impacts of ethical hacking in the society. Few of the effects are beneficial
for the community whereas some effects are not at all beneficial. The effects of the ethical
hacking on our society are discussed below (Sheoran & Singh,2014). Hacking techniques are
taught to the students who are interested in learning these new methods. Students are provided
with security courses to make them understand the need of ethical hacking and what are the
effects of ethical hacking. These courses are making the student more interested as they are able
to hack anyone’s system or any type of peripheral devices.by organising certain workshops and
trainings among the students it is possible to make the students understand that without the
presence of ethics the ethical hacking is not good at all (Curbelo & Cruz, 2013). Impacts of
ethical hacking on the business: The operations of the businesses are almost impossible without
the use of IT. IT helps in making the data in electronic form. Ethical hacking helps in detecting

2ETHICAL HACKING
the problems associated with the IT system of the businesses. Besides finding the problems and
disclosing them it also provides suggestions for solving them. There are also some effects on the
technology like ethical hacking helps in detecting the deficiencies of the technology. Ethical
hacking also helps in protecting the confidential data as well. It also helps in increasing the
security of the IT system as well (Conrad, 2012).
Information security includes the ways that are designed for the purpose of implementing and
designing to protect any information’s from any risks like hacking, misuse of the data and many
more. Ethical hacking includes the following for the purpose of securing the data. Perimeter
intrusive penetration testing is to be done for simulating a destructive attack from any external
sources like internet, identity system weakness and after that exploitation of them for the purpose
of gaining access to the network of the organisation and the other sensitive data of the
organisation (Chowdappa, Subbulakshmi, & Kumar, 2014). The activity mainly includes the
testing for the purpose of testing the security system of the of the IT infrastructure. The internal
network scanning is also included for the purpose of scanning the network and make attempts for
accessing the computer system of the user without informing them or giving them a limited
amount of information. Reviews needs to be done for the configuration on the identified network
components and servers configurations for the purpose of determining the configurations that are
not right. This also includes the application security and data security also (Juneja, 2013).
Vulnerability assessment mainly refers to the defining and the classification of the network or
the system resources along with assigning of the different levels of information to the resources.
This also includes the way of identifying the different threats that are associated with different
resources and then implement certain strategies for the purpose of dealing with the threats. The
final step includes the definition of the ways implemented for the purpose of minimizing the

3ETHICAL HACKING
effects of the attacks. There remains a need for the disclosure of the vulnerabilities after
identifying the vulnerabilities (Bechtsoudis & Sklavos, 2012). The vulnerabilities in the system
are analysed by the use of ethical hacking. According to the level of importance the vulnerability
is fixed that means if the vulnerability is of high importance then it has to fixed immediately and
if it is of low importance then a certain amount of time is allocated to the vendors for the purpose
of fixing the problem. White hat hackers or the ethical hackers mainly performs the task of
identifying the problems by means of ethical techniques (Umrao, Kaur & Gupta, 2012).
Cyber-attacks are very much common nowadays and companies are facing a lot problem
due to this issue. Attacks are mainly done by the hackers or some internal employees of the
company. Proper ethical hacking methods should be adapted to detect the risks associated with
the IT security system of the organisation. Proper vulnerability assessment should be adopted by
every organisations to avoid the risks associated with problems. Ethical hacking is a legal
process, and it is an essential way of protecting the system. Ethical hackers detect the problems
in the security systems and suggest methods by which these issues can be solved. Hacking may
be illegal or legal and can be classified according to the good or bad The ethical hackers access
the data and identifies the problems and then discloses the problems to the organisation. This
help in taking certain measures to prevent the attacks. Everyone should be aware of the things
going around them and keep themselves updated about the things that are going around them.
Ethical hacking helps the organisations in solving the problems associated the IT infrastructure.
The steps that are associated with the vulnerability assessment significantly works for the
detection and solving the problems. Ethical hacking is possible only after receiving the
permission of the owners of the system. Ethical hacking is a legal process and by providing

4ETHICAL HACKING
proper knowledge about it can greatly influence today’s society. It’s necessary for every
organisation to adopt ethical methods for the betterment of their organisation.

5ETHICAL HACKING
References:
Bansal, A., & Arora, M. (2012). Ethical Hacking and Social Security. Radix International
Journal of Research in Social Science, 1(11), 1-16.
Bechtsoudis, A., & Sklavos, N. (2012). Aiming at higher network security through extensive
penetration tests. IEEE latin america transactions, 10(3), 1752-1756.
Chowdappa, K. B., Subbulakshmi, S., & Kumar, P. P. (2014). Ethical hacking techniques with
penetration testing. International journal of computer science and information
technologies, 5(3), 3389-3393.
Conrad, J. (2012). Seeking help: the important role of ethical hackers. Network
Security, 2012(8), 5-8.
Juneja, G. K. (2013). Ethical hacking: A technique to enhance information security. International
Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2(12), 7575-7580.
Prasad, M., & Manjula, B. (2014). Ethical Hacking Tools: A Situational Awareness. Int J.
Emerging Tec. Comp. Sc. & Elec, 11, 33-38.
Sheoran, P., & Singh, S. (2014). Applications of Ethical Hacking. International Journal of
Enhanced Research in Science Technology & Engineering, 3(5), 112-114.
Umrao, S. A. C. H. I. N., Kaur, M. A. N. D. E. E. P., & Gupta, G. K. (2012). Vulnerability
assessment and penetration testing. International Journal of Computer & Communication
Technology, 3(6-8), 71-74.