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Ethical Hackers. Skills

White hat hackers – who are they?

Imagine hacking into other people's networks or computer systems legally and for socially beneficial reasons, and receiving a legitimate payment for it, the amount of which is too immodest to disclose.

In our publication, you'll learn what skills you need to develop to become a white hat hacker. What you need to know to make this challenging and incredibly rewarding job yours.

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Such activity is a cherished dream and a coveted path for cybercriminals. However, only ethical hackers, or "penetration testers," as they are also called, are respected and know for a fact that a successful hack carried out for hire will lead not to escape, but to a monetary reward, professional success, and even fame.

Companies hire white hat hackers to audit internal systems and identify security vulnerabilities. They also conduct equipment testing, comprehensive vulnerability assessments, and develop measures to strengthen cybersecurity measures. Moreover, ethical hackers use the same hacking tools as malicious hackers.

Until recently, the word "hacker" had a negative connotation, but today, the ethics and professionalism of those engaged in such emergency services is common practice throughout the IT industry. There are entire specialized programs and certification centers for white-hat hackers, such as CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker).

The best of the best pentesters become the basis of permanent "red teams" at large IT companies to provide high-quality support for overall security.

Good skills

A strong distinction and quality indicator for this profession of engineer and programmer is versatility, as no one knows for sure the scope of the task or the threats posed by an environment or situation. A pentester's training and specialization focus on a key area, and as a necessary complement, a hacker must be familiar with all types of forced hacking, penetrations, and attacks.

Based on the fact that it is never known in advance where trouble will come from in the target system.

Anyone who decides to master this field should know that experience, practice, and experimentation will bring mastery, and this is more than just broad theoretical knowledge of modern technologies.

Let's look at the necessary skills you need to focus on if you want to enter the IT field.

  • Database and systems administration

    Most white hat hackers were once regular system administrators, maintaining corporate networks. Testing specialists must understand all the nuances and principles of general Linux, Windows, and Unix administration, as well as the interactions between SQL and databases.

  • Scripts.

    A hacker must be able to automate attack infrastructure and workflows. This skill is key, as most attacks rely on data flows and repeated file system write requests. Scripting is a useful skill when bypassing endpoint security.

  • Software development and coding.

    Anyone who understands how to write application code and the techniques used will be well-versed in identifying the weak points of a given object. Former software developers also make up a significant portion of the group of people who today become white-hat hackers. This is understandable. Direct involvement in the development and coding of a product provides a complete understanding of the system's framework and tools. And most importantly, it helps identify potential problems early on.

  • Navigation.

    Penetrating a given network requires navigation skills, knowledge of protocols and operating systems.

  • Design.

    The applications are similar in terms of access to the infrastructure. A hacker must have extensive experience in identifying vulnerabilities and exploiting them. For example, SQL injection allows access to the database and, in addition, permission to execute commands on a remote host.

  • Tools.

    An ethical hacker's arsenal should include a set of utilities and tools. Most of them are open source, cost nothing, and appear simple to the untrained eye. A penetration tester with experience understands all the useful features and their applications. They will build the correct configuration, rather than automatically launching an analysis like a novice, which will rely on potentially false positives.

  • Understanding the tasks, qualifications, and experience—all of this together will save hours and even months of work with the right approach.

Soft skills

This subsection consists of one requirement. That, How do you think means much more than that,what do you know?

Social skills are sometimes more important than technical ones, and developing personal qualities is necessary for success in this field.

Studying the company the hacker is targeting, the people and processes within it, allows one to accurately determine the best attack method.

Passion

A hacker must be passionate about what they do, be interested in new things, and love hacking by default.

And money plays a role here, but not a primary one. That's probably why this profession is so lucrative.

Knowledge and passion are tested by challenging tasks, where a specialist's full skill set and tenacity are revealed. Persevering in the face of failure becomes an experience that will lead to mastery and well-deserved respect in the future. And, of course, to reward.

Where would we be without this point?

Hacking is not an exact science and it sometimes takes a hacker a tremendous amount of trial and error before they crack something.

Crazy and, in the eyes of the average person, monstrous ideas for integration into the system often bring the best results.

In conclusion to this section, we'll add that a penetration tester also needs to clearly understand when hacking efforts are futile and it's time to leave. Correctly determining the direction and not trying to futilely indulge one's ego is a valuable skill. This is no less important than persistence in scenarios.

New skills and brains

Code changes, new programming languages, new frameworks, and new applications emerge. And all this means that learning should never stop.

A pentester's mind is different from the average person's. Their unconventional thinking and problem-solving methods when hacking networks demonstrate that they think beyond the script and beyond it. Their creativity, enthusiasm, and sheer courage allow them to find loopholes and invent unexpected methods to circumvent specifications and apparent invulnerabilities.

Phishing clearly demonstrates that hacking in this segment is a fruitful study of human behavior and almost always hits the target accurately.

Ethical hackers need to not only penetrate the minds of their target audience, but also the minds of attackers to outsmart them. Understanding threat methods helps good penetration testers defeat bad ones.

Sociality

The common notion that a hacker is a shaggy recluse is outdated. Today, they are team players who will describe and present to their team, step by step, the method they used to hack a target. This allows the client or customer to integrate the developed methods, replicate the strategy, and solve the problem.

Business and cybersecurity vulnerability detection tasks are often sensitive, so social skills, an understanding of privacy, and communication skills are integral to the white hat hacker profile.

Ethics

Ethics and the law are different concepts. No matter how honest you are with yourself, it's important to be sure you're operating within the law. This is especially true in the field of manual testing, where the legal framework is vague, putting clients and hackers in ambiguous situations. The lack of a legal framework puts white hat hackers in a vulnerable position, so it's essential to have a contract in which the client clearly states that the hacking operation is being commissioned. Large businesses employ defense attorneys, and this practice is already commonplace if a hack gets out of control or something similar occurs. A penetration tester's understanding of the law will protect them from unexpected twists and turns. Clear contractual terms prevent the assignment and work from being interpreted from an inappropriate perspective.

Hacker's Pride

Resourcefulness, creative thinking, experience, passion – we have listed the wonderful qualities of a white hat hacker.

An ethical hacker is the most dangerous and most sought after in professional circles.

Why?

Because he takes client data, tests systems, architectures, hacks and looks for vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, the client knows that, fortunately, they were attacked by a "white hat" hacker, and now, after the attack and implementation work has been completed, all weak points have been patched, closed, and the business is completely secure.

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