The word “hacker” carries a negative connotation to many people, but hacking — even with the intent of breaking through security — isn’t always malicious.
There are situations where hacking can help improve a data center’s cybersecurity.
White Hats, Red Teams, and Pen Tests
Ethical hackers look for security flaws in a system to help a company fix a problem.
“A red team might embrace the concept of ethical hacking for finding a problem before an attacker would,” said Chris Kennedy, CISO and VP of customer success at AttackIQ, a cybersecurity company. It allows a data center to plug the security hole before the bad guys can find it.
There’s a broad spectrum of activity and skill levels involved here, he said. For example, automated tools could be used to look for known flaws in systems and applications. At the opposite end of the spectrum, talented engineers can reverse engineer applications.
