What
is Ethical Hacking?
Art and
Science of determining vulnerabilities within the existing network
architecture. The idea of ethical hacking is to put yourself in the shoes of
hacker and access monitor the flaws in your own network.It is used to determine
the security flaws in the network before the hacker does by using similar tools
and techniques as the hacker.
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Types of Ethical Hacking :-
White
Box: Full knowledge of the system. What this means is that you have
full information about the system. i.e. you know what IP the database server is
running on and what version of the operating system is running on that box etc.
This makes it easy for you to learn about the various details and then
fingerprint that very system.
Black
Box: You have NO knowledge of the system infrastructure. As a
Ethical hacker, this should be the one that can help you see things from a
hacker’s perspective as you like the hacker does not have any initial knowledge
about the system.
Vulnerability
Assessment: Usually done by using an automated script. The only negative
is that your testing will be as good as your tool. The positive is pretty
clear, you run an automated script which covers certain things and you are all
set for those covered topics.
Penetration
Testing: Comprehensive review of vulnerabilities, how to exploit
those vulnerabilities and understanding how networks react to them.
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Skills of the Hacker :-
1.) Should
possess Extensive Knowledge – This means that you need to know everything
about everything. Though it sounds unrealistic, but this is true.
2.)
Should already be a security expert in other areas ( like perimeter security
etc).
3.)
Should have experience as network or system administrator. The concept is
pretty simple, you can’t hack a PBX
box, if you don’t know how to operate one. Or you can’t hack a Linux/Unix box
if you don’t know various Unix commands.
4.)
Should have good working knowledge of various OS.
5.)
Good understanding of ports, protocols and TCP/IP.
6.) You
also need to have a good understanding of common security vulnerabilities and
their fixes like buffer overflow etc.
7.)
Good understanding of the various security tools and techniques.