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Cybersecurity vocabulary · Penetration Testing

Ethical hacker

Meaning in cybersecurity, with examples

nounCommon term

In cybersecurity, ethical hacker means: A security professional who uses attackers' skills and methods, with the owner's written permission, to find and report weaknesses so that they can be fixed.

In Turkish: etik hacker, beyaz şapkalı hacker

How it is used

Also called a white-hat hacker; 'pentester' is the usual job title. Permission is what separates ethical hacking from crime. Certifications such as CEH and OSCP often appear in job ads.

Example sentences

  1. An ethical hacker found the flaw through our bug bounty programme and reported it privately.

  2. She works as an ethical hacker for a consultancy that tests banks.

Common collocations

  • ethical hacking
  • white-hat hacker
  • certified ethical hacker
  • black-hat hacker
  • penetration testAn authorised, simulated attack on a system, application or network, carried out by security specialists to find weaknesses before real attackers do.
  • bug bountyA programme in which an organisation invites outside researchers to find and report vulnerabilities in its systems and pays rewards for valid reports.
  • red teamA group of security specialists who act like real attackers, using any approved method, to test how well an organisation can detect and stop them.
  • responsible disclosureReporting a vulnerability privately to the vendor or owner first and giving them reasonable time to fix it before any details are made public.

More terms: Penetration Testing

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