What is Ethical Hacking?
Learning Objective
I can define ethical hacking and its importance in cybersecurity. I can identify the different types of threats that companies have to guard against.
Key Concepts
Social engineering involves tricking users into divulging confidential information or configuring systems to allow attackers entry, with phishing and pretexting being common types of attacks.
A buffer overflow attack occurs when input exceeds the buffer's capacity, potentially crashing the system or allowing attackers to inject malicious code, while code injection involves inserting malicious commands, often in SQL, to manipulate databases.
Hackers exploit vulnerabilities, sometimes using zero-day exploits before patches are available, and can create botnets from compromised computers for activities like DDoS attacks, highlighting the importance of cybersecurity practices and software updates.
Practice Questions
This lesson includes 12 practice questions to reinforce learning.
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1. Define ethical hacking and explain its role in enhancing cybersecurity for organizations.
2. What are the primary differences between White Hat, Black Hat, and Hacktivist hackers in terms of their motivations and actions?
3. Describe social engineering and provide two examples of how it is used by malicious actors to compromise computer systems.
...and 9 more questions
Educational Video
Hackers & Cyber Attacks: Crash Course Computer Science #32
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