Ethical Hacking

An ethical hacker is a computer and network expert who attacks a security system on behalf of its owners, seeking vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could exploit. To test a security system, ethical hackers use the same methods as their less principled counterparts, but report problems instead of taking advantage of them. Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing, intrusion testing and red teaming. An ethical hacker is sometimes called a white hat, a term that comes from old Western movies, where the "good guy" wore a white hat and the "bad guy" wore a black hat.

Having computer security engineers attempting to break into your systems to bring out the vulnerabilities inherent in the design or implementation of your security policies is one of the best ways to measure your vulnerability to malicious attacks that could be launched both from inside and outside your organisation. These engineers are called ethical hackers, and utilize similar tools and techniques as real hackers; lacking the intent to actually harm or cripple your network and systems.

Although ethical hackers need to know the techniques and the tools of criminal hackers to be able to simulate and stop them, they also need to be morally responsive and always act in the best interests of their clients and their systems. In line with our professional standards, Penetrax will not employ ex-criminal hackers.