Ethical hacking.

Opinions? Anyone a veteran?

[bhonda]

Hey,

We've just been rung up by an ethical hacking company, complaining that one of their sales emails to us has been blocked by our spam filter.

Hehe.

This got me thinking - what is the deal with this ethical hacking lark? I've never been involved in it, and my knowledge of it is very vague indeed...but I was just wondering if it has taken off yet. I can really appreciate the advantages - kinda like a thief to catch a thief, but anyone think that this could be used as an excuse if someone gets caught hacking?

Question is - anyone been involved in hacking in an ethical manner? Anyone been ethically hacked?

I'm just curious more than anything - what's the general opinion from the webmaster community?

B

[laertes]

ethical hacking company

That's a new one to me. What is it? Sounds like an oxymoron.

[FalseDawn]

"ethical hacking" is generally the term used for part of the task undertaken by professional security consultants.
A friend of mine is in the business, and generally it just involves using all the tools that a "non-ethical" hacker has available to try to break into your network.

No, it would not be an excuse if you got hacked, as breaking into anyone's system *without their permission* is illegal, and this is not something any professional would do.

Genuine security consultants charge a fortune for their services and do not go around randomly trying to break into systems and certainly do not cold call to try to gain business.

[LifeinAsia]

We've just been rung up by an ethical hacking company, complaining that one of their sales emails to us has been blocked by our spam filter.

They're supposed to be a hacking company and they can't get past a SPAM filter?! Geez, why don't they just call you to tell you they're idiots, but will you please hire them anyway.?

[kaled]

Probably a pure phone scam - did you ask what email address they used? I think the answer would have been "I'm sorry but I don't have that information in front of me" or words to that effect. Either way, hang up.

Kaled.

[aspdaddy]

IMO, the courses are essential if you build and host public sistes, take along a laptop or ftp site address and let them tell you the admin password :)