DailyPost 798
THE ETHICAL HACKER ENIGMA!
If there were to be an all out war between the bad guy hackers and ethical hackers, who would win, you can take a guess. I would not hazard doing it . What is important is to make aware the role of ethical hackers in our digital world. Define their job description. Is unorganized cyber security philanthropy work is what they are destined to do? Why do they still live on the fringes of the digital world, it is very difficult to fathom out.
When hacks are extracting trust out of the digital systems on which out existence is totally dependent, from your money in your bank account to the functioning of the critical infrastructure of the country. In this scenario the sentinels of Cyber Peace, can only be the ethical hackers. Simple penetration testing of software, anti-virus, firewalls, authentication controls etc has brought security to some level. The Security Gap, is gaping, who will keep diagnosing it persistently, leave aside keep rectifyng it, in what can be termed as the Digital Attrition War.
The role of the Ethical Hacker is end to end, Cyber Security Audit of your organization to start with. This would itself lay bare the weaknesses of your cyber controls. The most fascinating part of Cyber Security is the inability to detect a breach. It is way beyond the capablities of the IT Security teams & the bandwagon of IT Security Vendors following them. Who guides them, who directs them, who makes out a meaning out of numerous softwares & applications running for this purpose. The ethical hacker can give you the vulnerabilities of the software/s, APIs, the whole of the networking – intelligent hardware, software & the connectivity, Data Center operations, storage, central databases etc.
It is difficult to fathom out why as independent cyber security resource, they have not been able make entry into organisations, whose sustenance is based on Cyber Security? It’s full of consultants & vendors selling standardised security solutions in a completely uncertain cyber secure world. Ethical Hackers given the recognition they deserve can be groomed into sentinels of Cyber Peace, with outstanding capablities in both Cyber Security Testing, Audit, supervising Digital Operations and above all at par Defensive and Offensive capablities of the Omnipresent Hacker.
ETHICAL HACKERS CAN HELP IMPROVE OUR CYBER SECURITY STANCE CONSIDERABLY.
Sanjay Sahay