Benefits of Ethical Hacking for Your Business
What good can come out of having an employee on rolls who is known to be an ethical hacker? Well, a lot!
Yes, that’s true. Having an ethical hacker onboard can turn the tables around for your organization. The job of a certified ethical hacker is to safeguard the organization from possible cyber threats and on his watch, your data is in a safe haven.
What Sherlock Holmes was to Scotland Yard is what an ethical hacker is to an organization except an ethical hacker is better given his job description includes prevention of cyber crimes as well.
Ethical Hacker is Valuable for Organizations
The digital marketplace is a twisted world to live in where people enter with all sorts of nefarious intentions. Of course, there is a cyber security skill gap due to lack of awareness and the best way to fix it is to have a white hat hacker onboard. A white hat hacker is one with a certificate in an ethical hacking course and is responsible for finding and fixing vulnerabilities in the system.
Presence is best appreciated when the results of absence are known. We have listed an instance of the absence of ethical hackers and the grave losses that followed.
Case: Marriott International
Date: 2014-18
Impact: Personal information of 500 million customers compromised
Details: In 2014, a breach occurred in the systems of Starwood hotels which were later acquired by Marriott International in 2016. The attackers remained in the system and were not discovered until the cyber attack of September 2018.
In the attack, contact info, passport numbers, travel information, Starwood preferred guest numbers and related confidential information was compromised. As per a statement of Marriott International credit card numbers and expiration dates of over 100 million customers were stolen. While it was uncertain whether the attackers could decrypt the credit card numbers or not.
Eventually, the breach was connected to a Chinese intelligence group which was functioning to gather data on US citizens. This is the largest known breach of personal data in history.
The story would be different if Starwood Hotels have recruited a few ethical hackers to test the vulnerabilities in their system.
There are more convincing reasons for reconsidering hiring an ethical hacker before putting the proposal off the table. Here are some for your perusal.
1. A strong defensive system for all the possible threats
An ethical hacker can find vulnerabilities in your system by thinking through the intents and possible actions of a malicious hacker. This helps in building a strong defensive system by pre-closure of the possible tracks. Strategizing attacks so that they can be prevented is in the job description of an ethical hacker. With such defensive strategies in place, the critical data and infrastructure of an organization can be protected.
2. Limits Your Liability
An onboard ethical hacker dedicated to the system and network security shows the efforts made to safeguard the critical data at hand. Thus, in the unfortunate event of a breach, hack, or data leakage, the liabilities that may befall you as per the governing law will reduce to a great extent.
Also, your critical data can be protected from getting compromised. This is a significant benefit from the regulatory perspective.
3. Keep the credibility of your organization intact
A security breach can negatively impact the credibility of your organization in the market. The case study of the Yahoo group is a piece of clear evidence for that. Consider the case study below:
Victim: Yahoo
Date: 2013-14
Impact: 3 billion user accounts compromised & $350 Million lost
Details: Yahoo was in negotiations with Verizon to sell itself in September 2016. Meanwhile, Yahoo announced that it had been a victim of a data breach in 2014 under a state-sponsored act which impacted 500 million users. A few months later, it was announced that another breach which happened in 2013 by a different group of hackers had compromised 1 billion accounts.
These figures were revised and in October 2017, Yahoo revealed a total of 3 billion user accounts had been compromised.
Verizon made a final payment of $4.48 billion knocking off $350 million for the breaches. The same Yahoo was valued at $100 billion once.
Data breaches are more hazardous than considered. Suitable measures to prevent or minimize the impact of such breaches should be taken beforehand only. Hiring an ethical hacker is step one for that.
4. Handle Sophisticated Attacks
The dark web has a gravitational pull for hackers with malicious intentions. The precision with which such hackers operate leaves no room for deflecting the attack. The level of sophistication in these cyber attacks calls for an intelligent intrusion detection system. The great advantage in your favour is that you have people with the same set of minds at your disposal but with constructive intentions. An ethical hacker can define detection rules and build a concrete intrusion detection system which will eliminate the chances of cyber attacks.
5. Smooth Cloud Transition
Data virtualization and IT sourcing are quite common these days. This simultaneous transition to the cloud opens entry points for malicious hackers which can be misused in several ways. An ethical hacker can insulate the whole cloud transition process and keep the loose ends intact. In this way, you can keep your network protected and secured during simultaneous cloud transition.
What to look for in an ethical hacker?
Besides, sizeable work experience in the industry, an ethical hacker must hold a certificate in Ethical Hacking Training Course. This certificate indicates that he is qualified to function in the capacity of an ethical hacker. In case you are concerned about possible losses that might occur due to the activities of an ethical hacker, you can request him to provide an employee fidelity/honesty bond or other insurance coverage which will reimburse you in case your company experience losses as a result of his activities.
With all the positive backing, the services of an ethical hacker will only prove beneficial for your organization.
