White Hat Hacking: The Important Role that Ethical Hackers Play in Cybersecurity Management

Cybercrime is quickly becoming the new face of organized crime, as global cybercrime damage costs are expected to exceed $6 trillion annually by 2021. To combat this scourge of cyber attacks, cybersecurity professionals often turn to fighting fire with fire by relying on individuals known as ethical or white hat hackers.

What is White Hat Hacking?

White hat hackers use all the same tricks and tools to break past a company’s cybersecurity defenses as a typical hacker. The only difference is that they are hired by the company to do it.

This process, known as penetration testing, involves an ethical hacker attempting to breach a company in the attempt to highlight weaknesses that the company can then patch. In other words, relying on white hat hackers enables companies to find flaws in their cybersecurity before those flaws are found and exploited by someone with criminal intentions.

Careers in White Hat Hacking

You may have heard stories before of criminal hackers switching sides and being recruited to a career in penetration testing. While this does take place, by far the more common (and safer) way to pursue a career in cybersecurity is to legally learn the skills you need through a respected cybersecurity program.

At TUW, our MBA with a concentration in Cybersecurity Management teaches students the skills they need to conduct and oversee all manner of cybersecurity projects, including penetration testing. If you would like to pursue a valuable career putting your cyber-skills to work stopping criminals all over the world, we invite you to learn more about this program.