Ethical hacking and penetration testing are closely related, with the former often involving the use of the latter. Ethical hackers, or “white hat” hackers, use the same methods and software as malicious hackers, but report weaknesses and do not use the system for personal gain. Penetration testing is an attempt to penetrate a secure system to identify weaknesses. “Black box” testing is done without knowledge of the system, while “white box” testing is done with insider knowledge.
The connection between ethical hacking and penetration testing is quite straightforward, as the former typically involves the use of the latter. Ethical hacking refers to actions by people employed by a company to attempt to break into that company’s system or network, to demonstrate weaknesses or ways in which someone could launch a malicious attack against that company. Penetration testing is basically an attempt to penetrate a secure system in order to mimic the way someone might maliciously attack the system. This means that people are usually hired by a company to engage in ethical hacking and penetration testing for that company.
Someone hired by a company to perform ethical hacking and penetration testing on that company’s system is often referred to as a “white hat” hacker. He or she employs the same methods and types of software used by a “black hat” hacker who may attack a system to obtain information for malicious reasons. However, if a white hat hacker gains access to a system, he or she reports weaknesses and how he or she was able to successfully attack. A black hat hacker is likely to keep this information secret and use it for their own personal gain.
The association between ethical hacking and penetration testing is largely based on how the two terms are used in the computer security industry. Ethical hacking is typically used by white hat hackers to describe the types of services they provide. Someone involved in ethical hacking is, for all intents and purposes, trying to gain access to a secure system or network using the same methods and software that any malicious hacker might use. The main difference between this type of hacking and malicious hacking, however, is that an ethical hacker does not install malicious software on a compromised system or use the system for his own gain.
One of the ways that ethical hacking is usually achieved is through a process known as penetration testing. This is basically an attempt to penetrate the security of a system or network. Ethical hackers and penetration testing are involved to ensure weaknesses are found through ongoing testing and to provide insight into how they can be eliminated.
“Black box” testing means that an ethical hacker does not have information about the system he or she is trying to access and is trying to attack the system in the same way that an outsider might try. This replicates an attack by someone who is targeting an outside company. In contrast to this, “white box” testing provides an ethical hacker with information about the system to replicate an attack by a hacker with insider knowledge of a system, such as an attempt by a former employee.
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