Defining ethical hacking

Most people think hackers have extraordinary skill and knowl-
edge that allow them to hack into computer systems and find
valuable information. The term hacker conjures up images
of a youngcomputer whiz who types a few commands at a computer screen—and poof!
The computer spits out passwords, account numbers, or other confidential data. In reality,
a good hacker, or security professionalacting as an ethical hacker, just has to understand
how a computer system works and know what tools to employ in order to find a security
weakness. This book will teach you the same techniquesand software tools that many
hackers use to gather valuable data and attack computer systems.
The realm of hackers and how they operate is unknown to most computer and security
professionals.Hackers use specialized computer software tools to gain access to informa-
tion. By learning the same skills and employing the software tools used by hackers, you will
be able to defend your computernetworks and systems against malicious attacks.
The goal of this first chapter is to introduce you to the world of the hacker and to define
the terminology used in discussing computer security. To beable to defend against mali-
cious hackers, security professionals must first understand how to employ ethical hacking
techniques. This book will detail the tools and techniques used by hackers sothat you can
use those tools to identify potential risks in your systems. This book will guide you through
the hacking process as a good guy.
Most ethical hackers are in the business of hackingfor profit, an activity known as
penetration testing, or pen testing for short. Pen testing is usually conducted by a security
professional to identify security risks and vulnerabilities insystems and networks. The pur-
pose of identifying risks and vulnerabilities is so that a countermeasure can be put in place
and the risk mitigated to some degree. Ethical hackers are in the business...