Is ethical hacking in demand?

Ethical Hacking Course – In recent years IT security has been on the rise and so ethical hackers, who are in great demand lately due to technology advances followed by hike in threats in the Internet world.Even the giant tech companies in San Francisco like Google and Apple open opportunities for people with excellent knowledge in ethical hacking to prevent hackers from accessing confidential information from their companies and their clients.

Ethical hacking has become the bodyguard to computer systems and thanks to the ethical hacking course that provides CEH certification to professionals who become capable of securing the online world.

Banks are always under cyber threats. Similarly, several small, medium and large organizations have been attacked in recent past like Adobe Systems revealed 2.9 million customers’ data was leaked in 2018.

To stop such hacking it is learned one must think like a hacker. Here comes the role of ethical hacking course and its CEH certification. Ethical hackers performs security tasks like the hackers to protect the computer systems. They are allowed to hack networks of organizations to perform tests and make the systems more secured and safe from illegal hacking.

Lately the computer and networking system is going through a transition period towars Cloud computing where IT outsourcing and Virtualization are major trends. Level of cyber threats have increased several folds and this has given rise to more requirement of ethical hackers. Only expert professionals who has undertaken ethical hacking course and obtained CEH certification can overcome the complexities and challenges of Cloud computing.

Let’s have a look to the basics of computer hacking for a home computer and how to avoid as a layman without undertaking any ethical hacking course and without obtaining a CEH certification.

One of the main ways how computers are hacked are through remote desktops, which are very appealing that one can work on a computer from another location from any corner of the world by using sufficient software.

Ethical hackers suggest stopping the practice and below are some of the important things to take a note:

1. DO NOT ADVERTISE YOUR SERVER INFORMATION – This is very important. Do not reveal your dyndns server name. There are different ways of hacking into a remote desktop if the server information is known and I strongly suggest that the server name be confidential. I would like to take this a step further and would request you to change the server name once a week.

2. MAKE SURE YOUR FIREWALL IS CONFIGURED – There are several firewalls available in the market. Use the one that you trust the most. For all general purposes, I use the firewall that comes with Windows. Norton and McAfee firewalls are trustworthy as well.

There is a feature in Windows which would give you an option of remote desktop from a particular computer. Use it if you know the details of the computer you are using to access your remote computer. To get to this feature, right click on my computer – > Properties – > Remote – > Select Remote Users. You can add users here.

3. USE A UNIQUE PASSWORD – Several of the emails that I received were from users who did not create a password. There are a few websites online that search for computers that are open for remote desktop and those who don’t have a password. I STRONGLY suggest creating a password before setting up remote desktop.

Let us also check to couple of popular myths related to hacking:

True or False?

Someone can hack into my computer although my external modem is switched off.

False – Unless your PC is connected to a network, your computer’s only link with the outside world is via your modem. If it is turned off then no one can gain access to it. Internal modems are different. They are always on while your computer is switched on.

People cannot access my computer whilst it is turned off

True – Your computer’s data is only available whilst the PC is up and running.

Anyone can access my computer while I’m on the net.

False – In order to access your PC, the hacker would need to know the IP address of your computer. Unless you have a permanent link to the Internet (which usually only means companies), it is difficult (but not impossible) to find this out. An IP address looks like 127.0.0.1 — four numbers separated with dots. Your IP address changes every time you log on to the net. If you are ever asked for this, never give it out to a stranger!

People can see what I have been doing on the net — where I have been (websites)

True – It is possible to trace your activity through the Internet. One method is to have a look at a special file called cookies.txt. Search your system and see if one exists. Cookies store information about sites you have visited and may contain personal information. There are programs that let you see which cookies are being used. Some people think they are great as they store information about pages that you have visited, but they can be used to find out about you.