What is Ethical Hacking - Different Ethical Hacking Practices.
Before we define the term, let's first understand what is ethical hacking is. In simple terms, it is the process of finding weaknesses in a system and then using those weaknesses to gain unauthorized access. It is no surprise that hacking is illegal, and many individuals have found themselves behind bars because of it. Therefore, this hacking is called unethical hacking.

Did you know that hacking can be legal if you can get permission for it? Companies hire experts to hack into their systems to find their weaknesses. It helps the businesses rectify them and prevent malicious hackers from gaining confidential information as well.

Ethical Hacking Online

In summary, the individuals who hack into systems legally with permission, without any malicious end-goal, are known as ethical hackers. And the process is called ethical hacking.

Some of the different ethical hacking practices are:

Web server hacking
Hacking wireless networks
System hacking
Social engineering
Web application hacking

Evolution of Ethical Hacking
There are four high points in the history and evolution of ethical hacking.

Ethical hacking brought the practice of defense into the digital world. Attacking your defense to locate your weaknesses and using that to an advantage is one of the critical ethical hacking concepts. Technically, the idea behind it had been around for more than a thousand years.
In 1995, Netscape launched the first Bug Bounty Program. It gave rewards to hackers for reporting vulnerabilities before somebody could exploit them.
In 2014, Google paid white hat hackers about $1.5 million.
In 1995, IBM's John Patrick first used the term "ethical hacking."
Core Principles of Ethical Hacking
Ethical hackers follow four core principles:

Staying legal: Hackers need legal permission to access and perform security assessments.
Determining the assessment scope: To stay within approved legal boundaries, the ethical hacker should define the assessment’s scope.
Reporting vulnerabilities: The hacker should report any vulnerabilities he finds to the organization.
Taking data-sensitive information into consideration: Usually, ethical hackers sign a non-disclosure agreement for the organization before starting the assessment.
Types of Hackers
Typically, there are three types of hackers.


White Hat Hacker
An ethical hacker is also known as a white-hat hacker. They gain access to a system with proper approval to find out vulnerabilities. They intend to fix them before a malicious hacker exploits them.

Black Hat Hacker
Black hat hackers are also called crackers. They hack into a system without any permission and harm its network or steal confidential and sensitive information. This hacking is illegal and includes work like stealing corporate data, damaging systems, violating data privacy, etc.

Grey Hat Hacker
The last type of hacker is the grey hat hacker, a combination of both black hat and white hat hacker. They usually hack for fun, and they exploit a system without the owner's knowledge.

Skills Required to Become a Certified Ethical Hacker
The top skills to become an ethical hacker include:

Excellent computer skills
Programming skills
Database management systems (DBMS)
Cryptography
Linux
Reverse engineering
Wireless technologies
Web applications
Networking
Critical thinking and problem-solving.