How to Become an Ethical Hacker: A Beginner's Guide

The world is becoming increasingly digital as time passes. With it have come a lot of advancements and breakthroughs. We can communicate with people on the other side of the globe, complete business transactions without any physical cash and many more.

But this also brings with it new problems. Our lives and entire identities are put into the digital space and just as with any bank, our prized possessions are constantly under threat of being taken away at a moment's notice.

The biggest threat to our digital security right now is hackers. According to TechTarget, a hacker is an individual or individuals with technical computer skills who use their skills to breach cybersecurity defences.

This has been a prevalent problem since the first case of hacking in France in 1834 per Monroe College. However, hacking in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. While hacking has a long history, not all hacking is malicious. This brings us to an important distinction in the field.

Who is an Ethical Hacker?

There are two major forms of hacking, ethical hacking (white-hat hacking) and unethical hacking (black-hat hacking). They both involve everything hacking entails with the only difference being the reason behind the action.

Black-hat hacking is what most are used to, cracking into people's accounts to steal millions or forcing your way into databases to get petabytes of information. White-hat hacking, on the other hand, is a bit different.

Ethical hacking or white-hat hacking is a form of hacking done in a bid to improve cybersecurity. They are typically hired by companies to try and crack into whatever form of cybersecurity the company has set up. They then give the company feedback on vulnerabilities and other ways they believe the security could be improved.

This way, they help organizations and individuals by providing ways to protect against Black-hat hackers.