The word "hacking" always brings negative connotations to mind but not all hackers are created equal. In fact, some hackers do "ethical" hacking for the greater good.
These ethical hackers are also known as "white hat hackers" who generally follow the belief that, in order to defeat your enemy, you must know them well.
So what are white hat hackers compared to black hat hackers? What types of formal employment opportunities are available for ethical hackers? And why is this such a popular field right now?
White vs. Black Hat Hackers
There are two main types of hackers in the world of cybersecurity: black hat hackers, and white hat hackers.
Black hat hackers have given the world of hacking a bad rep as they target and exploit victims for their selfish reasons, ranging from financial gains to taking revenge, shutting down infrastructure to simply creating hysteria.
White hat hackers, on the other hand, are the cherished hackers that try to ward off the black hatters and their evil tactics. Their main aim is to improve security, detect security loopholes, and inform potential victims beforehand so they can prevent getting attacked and exploited.
What Do White Hat Hackers Do?
It might come as a surprise to many but white hat hackers are esteemed professionals who are typically hired by businesses. Their job responsibilities entail identifying loopholes in systems and helping improve security.
To protect services and systems against attacks, white hat hackers go behind the scenes to thwart attacks in real-time and before they even happen. By combining their hacking skills with deep cyber threat analysis, white hat hackers mitigate and quickly remediate any potential vulnerabilities.
Is It Easy To Get Hired as an Ethical Hacker?
Do you have what it takes to become a white hat hacker?
The job boards are rife with professional ethical hacking jobs as white hat hackers are in high demand for organizations that value security. In fact, becoming a certified ethical hacker is now a popular goal among ambitious information security professionals.
Most ethical or white hat hackers can easily find formal employment within the security departments of larger organizations. The fact that ethical hackers know the ins and outs of how cybercriminals operate makes them a valuable asset for any team.
But of course, you have to have the proper skills to become a hacker in the first place!
What Type of White Hat Hacking Roles Are Available?
If you have a knack for hacking and would like to put it to good use, you're in luck. Ethical hacking is quickly becoming one of the world’s most important job roles, and demand for it is only expanding.
From risk management and social engineering, to security enforcement, there are several different types of ethical hacking roles available for certified ethical hackers and each serves its unique purpose.
Ethical hacker roles normally present themselves with titles such as "penetration tester" or "network security advisor". Each of these roles entails hacking into a company's systems. This allows the businesses to gauge where they stand in terms of cybersecurity and what measures they can take to secure their systems.
Sometimes, the ethical hacking jobs are labeled as "red team" roles since most security teams within an organization have "red team" and "blue team" roles.
While a red team's responsibility is to hack into the computer systems to try and target weak points, the blue team tries to fight against hackers to protect the systems.
White Hat Hacking: A New Approach to Security
Cyberattacks like phishing, ransomware, password attacks, and Zero-Day exploits are on the rise. But thanks to white hat hackers, these threats can be mitigated.
Since data is the most important asset for any organization, most companies nowadays engage ethical hackers to identify vulnerabilities in their systems.
Whether you want to learn more about ethical hacking, acquire a job in this field, or want to hire an ethical hacker to tighten loopholes around your organization, you can easily reach your goals with this latest approach to security.