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Security: Ethical Hackers Shine the Light on Vulnerabilities
Ethical hacking is a pre-emptive way to identify and resolve security vulnerabilities before a hacker attacks. Ethical hacking adopts standard hacking tools and techniques to non-maliciously gain unauthorized access to a computer system in order to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Why is there an incentive to use ethical hacking? A survey by IDC found that 78 percent of IT leaders are worried about the strength of their organization’s security defenses. As a result, 91 percent increased their annual funding for cybersecurity.
Haris Pylarinos, CEO of ethical hacker training platform, Hack the Box, said that “I presume, like most organizations, that there is a critical need to adopt a hacking mindset in today’s high-threat environment. That’s the only way to stay ahead of the criminals and it’s to be welcomed.”
But not all organizations share that mindset. Instead, many are not willing to seek help from outsiders. In fact, a survey of security personnel found that 38 percent thought that their organization did not promote any openness to security practices, and 67 percent thought that they “would rather accept software vulnerabilities than work with hackers.”
Alex Rice, CTO of HackerOne, disagreed with this way of thinking. “By not admitting weaknesses and asking for help fixing them, organizations risk far more significant damage to their brand should a vulnerability be exploited. Sunshine is the best medicine. Shining a light on the work to be done is the only way to win. We must stop asking security teams to toil away in obscurity.”
But more companies are accepting the use of ethical hackers.
Tanner Emek, an ethical hacker, was quoted by the Financial Times saying that “companies have been opening up more and more. Not only are more companies running bug bounty programs, but the scope also seems to be getting wider as well.”
