The History Of Ethical Hacking

What’s really going on behind your screen? Of course you’ve heard of all those bad guy geeks, malicious hackers, always trying to infiltrate IT networks. But how much do you know about the ethical hackers? Yes, the Robin Hoods of the virtual realm. Originally, the word “hacker” didn’t have a negative connotation at all.

1974: The U.S. Air Force conducts one of the first ethical hacks to test the security of the operating system Multics.

1995: Vice President of IBM John Patrick invents the term “ethical hacking,” reminding us that originally, the word “hacker” wasn’t necessarily pejorative.

2003: The on-line community OWASP drafts a guide that enables hackers to improve and regulate various penetration tests.

2015: The worldwide revenues of companies that provide cybersecurity represent a market value of 77 billion dollars.

2031: “Gold Hat” hackers are hired to supervise the effectiveness and conduct of the “White Hats.

Mr.John Patrick, IBM thinkpad, Hacking Expert and Hacker

    Now , Where Do Ethical Hackers Work ?

Gimme 5 - January 20, 2016

1. Telecommunications: Makes sense. Over 30% of the “White Hats” work in the Telecoms field.

2. Finance: Constantly under attack by malicious hackers, the financial industry employs 19% of ethical hackers.

3. Justice: Over 7% of the good supergeeks work in the field of justice, protecting networks from nefarious infiltrators.

4. Banks: In order to fight against cyber attacks, banks employ about 6% of the “White Hats” to secure their data.

5. Electronics: Hackers may be experts in electronics, but a mere 2% of them actually work in this field.

Ethical Hackers Have their own TV heroes.

The series Mr. Robot follows Elliott, an ethical hacker who works at a cybersecurity firm by day and who uses his hacking skills by night to fight cybercriminals. The first season of the show has won acclaim from critics and viewers, with Tech Insider stating that “Mr. Robot is the first show to get hacking right “.

And if that wasn’t enough, Mr. Robot has also won the Critics Choice Award and the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series. Plus a second series is already in the works. Now who’s in for a bit of bingewatching? 

Three Questions To Mikko Hypponen 

A Computer Security Expert.

Chief Research Officer of the company F-Secure, the Finn Mikko Hypponen is considered one of the world’s top experts in the field of cybersecurity. His work has put an end to a long list of the most infamous viruses. Our 3-question interview.

Orange Pop: Can you tell me how you got into computer security?

Mikko Hypponen: I started analyzing viruses 25 years ago, in 1991. And that’s what I’m still doing. I haven’t had a boring day on the job yet.

PO: According to you, what kind of values do ethical hackers need to have? 

MH: It’s all about trust. Ethical hackers have the skills to break into systems but they decide to put their skills to use in socially constructive ways. We have plenty of ethical hackers working for us, and we can totally trust that they will not misuse their skills. With great skill comes great responsibility.

PO: What is the most difficult aspect of fighting against “black hat” hackers? 

MH: Many of today’s online crimes are committed by organized crime groups. Some of these groups are not happy about security researchers who disrupt their operations and cost them money. This means that security researchers have to follow good operational security rules: we have to worry about real-world security as well.  This is something we didn’t have to think about at all 25 years ago when I started. But today we do.