Ethical hacking

Very few people realize that hacking is a misunderstood term; it means different things to different people, and more often than not a hacker is thought of as a person sitting in a dark enclosure with no social life and malicious intent. Thus, the word ethical is prefixed here to the term, hacking. The term, ethical hacker is used to refer to professionals who work to identify loopholes and vulnerabilities in systems, report it to the vendor or owner of the system, and, at times, help them fix the system. The tools and techniques used by an ethical hacker are similar to the ones used by a cracker or a black hat hacker, but the aim is different as it is used in a more professional way. Ethical hackers are also known as security researchers.