A person who does Ethical Hacking specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization's information systems.

Ethical hacking is a term meant to imply a broader category than just penetration testing.

Contrasted with a malicious hacker, the name comes from Western films, where heroic and antagonistic cowboys might traditionally wear a malicious hacker respectively.

Ethical hackers may also work in teams called "sneakers"

Ethical hackers are more commonly referred to as penetration testers, malware reverse engineers, security researchers, and the like.

Ethical Hackers are hackers who use their skills to protect the system and connected devices from malicious hackers. They are often security consultants or members of law enforcement.

Identity

An ethical hacker is a computer security specialist who investigates protected systems and networks to test, analyse and evaluate their security. Ethical hackers use their skills to improve security by exposing vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can detect and exploit them.

• Network security testing
• Web security testing
• Forensics security testing

A code security test analyzes how codes are written and how it interacts with other objects in an environment to identify weaknesses or flaws that would allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to systems, databases, or account privileges they are not entitled.

Network security testing

• Firewalls – Firewall is the protection layer which monitors the connections that can take place within a network.
• VPN’s – VPN Gateways are used to establish a secure connection to the remote systems.
• Anti Virus – It is used to monitor, identify and filter out all forms of malware.
• URL Filtering – URL filtering will keep the end users protected by restricting them to access malicious sites.
• IDS system – Intrusion detection system monitors for malicious attacks and raises alerts to the admin team.

Web security testing

Web application security testing is critical to protecting both your apps and your organization. Your web applications are likely to be the #1 attack vector for malicious individuals seeking to breach your security defenses. Available to users 24/7, web apps are the easiest target for hackers seeking access to confidential back-end data.

Nasty advanced threats can hide in plain sight in legitimate websites or in enticing pop-up ads. Employees or guests may put your organization at risk by clicking where they shouldn’t. CIC Web Security Appliance (WSA), protects you by automatically blocking risky sites and testing unknown sites before allowing users to link to them, helping with compliance.

Forensic security testing

Forensic investigators, or hacking forensic investigators, are the professionals who work for detecting the attacks of hacker on the computer system of an organization along with extracting the evidences properly to report the crime to the concerned authorities.

Hacking tools here means the tools or the software used to gather information of network or website. These tools could also be used by most of the hackers. There are several tools for different purposes. The tools listed here are some of the widely used.

Ethical Hackers are hackers who use their skills to protect the system and connected devices from malicious hackers. They are often security consultants or members of law enforcement.

Detect and stop threats better with security tools

Nessus / OpenVAS

Nessus Remote Security Scanner has become closed source software in the year 2005, but the engine that runs the software is still free of cost. 75000 organizations world-wide are using the Nessus Security Scanner. So, Nessus has become one of the world’s most popular scanner. Many have befitted from this software and it is being used extensively in auditing critical enterprise devices.

Metasploit

Metasploit took the security world by storm when it was released in 2004. It is an advanced open-source platform for developing, testing, and using exploit code. The extensible model through which payloads, encoders, no-op generators, and exploits can be integrated has made it possible to use the Metasploit Framework as an outlet for cutting-edge exploitation research.

Security Consultant

Our cybersecurity consultants provide services and solutions that deliver continuous security assurance for business, government, and critical infrastructure.

A code security test analyzes how code is written and how it interacts with other objects in an environment to identify weaknesses or flaws that would allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to systems, databases, or account privileges they should not have.

The following is an extensive library of security solutions and guides that are meant to be helpful and informative resources on a range of security solutions tools, from web application security to information and network security solutions to mobile and internet security solutions.

Penetration Test (Pen Test)

Penetration test(Pen Test) to automate certain tasks, improve testing efficiency and discover issues that might be difficult to find using manual analysis techniques alone.

Penetration testing compliments existing security processes and controls, it is NOT meant to substitute – compliance and security

Penetration test reports are very important and provide you with the structured details of the Pen Test after the engagement has completed. However, oftentimes this critical documentation lacks key aspects of what should be included, and clients begin to question the practical value of their assessments—and rightfully so. The report is everything.

While there are many nice things you can include in a report, CIC has identified four important attributes that will make every Pen Test report an outstanding one.

• Executive Summary for Strategic Direction
• Walkthrough of Technical Risks
• Potential Impact of Vulnerability
• Multiple Vulnerability Remedial Options

Executive Summary for Strategic Direction

The executive summary serves as a high-level view of both risk and business impact in plain English. The purpose is to be concise and clear. It should be something that non-technical readers can review and gain insight into the security concerns highlighted in the report.

Visual communication can also be helpful in getting complex points across clearly. Look for graphs, charts, and similar visuals in communicating the summary data provided here.

Walkthrough of Technical Risks

Most reports use some sort of rating system to measure risk, but seldom do they take the time to explain the risk. The client’s IT department needs to make swift, impactful decisions on how best to resolve vulnerabilities. To do so, they require approval from the people upstairs. To simply state that something is dangerous does not properly convey risk.

Technically Accurate

Company X’s web application does not limit user uploads by file type, creating a vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely and elevate their privilege within the application.

Both Accurate and Contextualized

Company X’s web application does not limit user uploads by file type, creating a vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely and elevate their privilege within the application. In this instance, the attacker would be able to view the medical records of any user and operate as an administrator on the application.

Potential Impact of Vulnerability

Risk can be broken down into two pieces: likelihood and potential impact.

Likelihood is a standard term in most assessment reports. Of course, the odds of an exploitation—while important—aren’t enough to define risk. You wouldn’t rank a deep-seated remote code execution lower than an email address of a developer obviously present in a HTML script. This is because the former would be far more impactful to the client.

If you think you’re seeing a theme here, you’re not wrong. An assessment report isn’t just for the IT staff. Executives need to see a break-down of how a vulnerability that anyone could have would directly affect their organization specifically. Factoring both the likelihood and potential impact of an exploitation into the overall risk is a major component of an excellent report.

Multiple Vulnerability Remedial Options

Most penetration test reports will include a generic, high-level description of how to handle these problems; however, these generic “catch-all’ remedial guides often fall short when it comes to the unique context of the client’s needs. If a client has a vulnerable service running on a webserver that they depend on, the remedies should offer more than telling them to simply disable the service altogether.

Of course, it’s important to let the client know that there’s a straightforward method of filtering for SQL injections, or configuring their firewall to block certain attacks. That said, a quality Pen Test report will give you multiple remedial options that are detailed enough to prepare the client’s IT team for a swift resolution. Assuming the internal staff already knows how to fix and resolve all vulnerabilities greatly reduces the value of the penetration test.