Hacking is the practice of accessing data stored privately by experts. When programmers did some mistakes, those mistakes make the system vulnerable and these vulnerabilities are being picked by hackers to hack the system. The hackers who don’t work on principles of ethical hacking are known as unethical hackers. Hackers are well aware that their activities are illegal and thus criminal activity which is why they are trying to close their tracks. In other words, we can say that – an effort to attack a computer system or a private network inside a computer is known as hacking.
Ethical Hacking is legal access to information that is unauthorized for the rest of the world. This type of hacking is done to protect the system or websites from malicious hackers and viruses. The hackers who work on principles of ethical hacking are known as ethical hackers. While Hackers may be highly skilled at breaking system programs, professional ethical hackers can restore the security of a compromised system and catch the criminal with their skills and abilities.
Types of Hackers:
A Hacker is a person who is intensely interested in the mysterious workings of any computer operating system. Hackers are most often programmers. They gather advanced knowledge of operating systems and programming languages and discover loopholes within systems and the reasons for such loopholes. There are generally 10 types of Hackers, they are as follows:
- White Hat Hackers
- Black Hat Hackers
- Gray Hat Hackers
- Script Kiddies
- Green Hat Hackers
- Blue Hat Hackers
- Red Hat Hackers
- State/Nation Sponsored Hackers
- Hacktivist
- Malicious Insider or Whistleblower
For more details please read the Types of Hackers article.
Differences Between Hacking and Ethical Hacking:
| S. No. |
Hacking |
Ethical Hacking |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Steal valuable information of company and individual for illegal activity | Hack system to reduce vulnerabilities of company’s system |
| 2. | Illegal practice and considered a crime | Legal practice, authorized by the company or individual |
| 3. | Such types of hackers are called black-hat hackers | Such types of hackers are called white-hat hackers |
| 4. | Such hackers try to access restricted networks through illegal practices and reduce the security of data. | Such hackers create firewalls and security protocols. |
| 5. | They work for themselves for dirty money. | They work with different government agencies and big tech companies. |
Similarities between Hacking and Ethical Hacking:
- Whether it be a white-hat hacker or black or grey they use the same tools for hacking.
- All the hackers have in-depth and strong knowledge of networks, operating system, computer fundamentals.
- They all try to find vulnerabilities by zero-day attack initially.
Things to be done when you think you are hacked:
- Turn off your internet connection: If you suspect theft, the first thing you should do is disconnect the internet from your system in order to stop further interference.
- Open Firewall: Sometimes we close firewall windows to install specific software. From a protection perspective, we should consistently be available firewalls. A hardware firewall is another excellent installation alternative. It acts as a partition between the External Network and your internal systems.
- Change your passwords: For accounts or devices that contain sensitive information, make sure your password is strong, unique, and not easily guessed.