You've certainly heard the term "Ethical Hacker", and this may have raised a question in your mind, because we've always been told that a hacker is a criminal, without any exception.

In this article, I will talk about what an ethical hacker is, how they act, and what motivates them.

What is an ethical hacker?

An ethical hacker is a security and hacking specialist who acts on the good side of the force. They use hacking skills to improve the security of companies, preventing security breaches and cyber attacks.

How do they work?

An ethical hacker works by identifying or remediating vulnerabilities or security gaps in systems of organizations/companies, in order to ensure that a cybercriminal does not identify them first, avoiding possible cyber attacks.

The ethical hacker can work internally in a company, as an employee, or can work independently through 3 ways:

1. Bug Bounty

Identifying and reporting vulnerabilities to companies that have a bug bounty program. These are programs that companies create to receive vulnerability reports from hackers who are not part of the company's internal team, and they pay these hackers according to the severity of each reported vulnerability.

2. Security consulting

Providing consulting services to companies, helping to identify vulnerabilities in their systems. This involves a contract made between the hacker and the company. This contract must contain all necessary clauses so that the service is provided securely.

3. Crowdsourced Pentest

Identifying vulnerabilities through crowdsourced pentest. This is a new approach to penetration testing, especially because it allows companies to pay for results and not for testing time. There are platforms like Synack, Bugcrowd, Cobalt, etc. that accept ethical hackers to do this for them.

So these ethical hackers have a fixed weekly or monthly remuneration to be able to test security in companies through these platforms.

3 Motivations to become an ethical hacker

Rewards

By reporting vulnerabilities to companies, you can earn monetary rewards through bug bounty programs, which are basically programs that companies create to receive vulnerability reports found by any ethical hacker.

Market

The cybersecurity market never stops growing, and while this is happening, various opportunities have been emerging for people specialized in the area, as many companies need ethical hackers to improve security in the digital space.

Contributing to a secure internet

Helping companies identify vulnerabilities in their systems has a huge impact, as most of these companies store data from many people. When you report a vulnerability, you help fix a flaw that could result in fraud if a criminal found it first.

And we've reached the end of the article. You can see what an ethical hacker really is. Share if you liked it, and if you want to become an ethical hacker, read the article:

https://americojunior.com/blog/como-comecar-a-hackear