Ethical hacking is a procedure of recognizing vulnerabilities in a system, in app or in an organization’s infrastructure. These susceptibilities are used by an attacker to exploit the organization or an individual. Penetration testing companies incorporate this procedure to protect organizations from security breaches and cyber attackers by legal hacking the system and find weak points.
Keeping this scenario in mind we are presenting to you 7 steps that can make ethical hacking simple and easy.
1. Prior To Engagement Communication between the Testers and The Target Organization
This step is very important as any pen test must begin by the target organization and the testers by developing the goals and the scope of the test. It should preferably be in written form.
2. Collecting Open-Source Intelligence
The tester must start by executing investigation against a target to collect as much data as possible. This process is called open source intelligence gathering. It is publically available data regarding the target organization.
3. Make A Proper Model That Identifies Real Objectives of A Hacker
During this stage, a penetration tester must list down the motivations and capabilities behind the possible actual attacker. They must try to see what aims within the target company could possibly attract the attention of an attacker.
4. Analysis of Susceptibilities
Probably, this is the core of what majority of the people think when it comes to penetration testing. This includes examining the target company’s infrastructure for security errors that will permit a hack.
5. Exploitation
During this stage, a pen tester utilizes these susceptibilities they have revealed to go into the target company’s system and exfilterate information. The objective here is not to cross their limit. The main aim is to avoid countermeasures and be unnoticed for longer time period.
6. After Exploitation
During this stage, the pen tester wants to maintain control of the system that has been breached. This will allow them to determine their value. This is specifically a fragile phase in regard to the relation between clients and the pen testers. It is very important that pre-engagement communications in the first stage generated a well-defined set of rules that will safeguard the customer’s interest. This will guarantee that no significant customer services are negatively impacted by the tests.
7. Reporting
Last but not the least; a tester should deliver informative and comprehensive report to the client. This will help to pinpoint the vulnerabilities and the risks. There is a huge majority of security professionals who have talked regarding the traits and the skills of ethical hacker. Majority of them have talked regarding the communication skills important to transfer this data.
Conclusion
After viewing the discussion above, it can be said that the significance of ethical hacking cannot be overlooked. Nowadays, organizations are looking for the best penetration testing companies who have professional and expert ethical hackers to complete this task. This makes the apps safe and sound for the customers to use and will also develop their loyal and trust for the app. This will lead to generate more profitability for the companies in this competitive world. However, in-ability of an organization to follow these seven simple steps can land them into big trouble.
