As time goes by, cyberattacks have evolved and escalated from simple phishing attempts and malware to sophisticated, persistent threats including deepfakes and AI driven threats.  In this advanced threat landscape, one way many organizations are trying to stay ahead is by employing hackers themselves.

The hackers in question, according to an article published in The CFO (and sponsored by EDR provider SentinelOne), are ethical or “white hat” hackers.  These professionals utilize all the same strategies and tactics that malicious (or “black hat”) hackers use to attack organizations, but they do so with the permission of those organizations and with the goal of uncovering security issues so that they can be addressed.

While many organizations employ similar tactics in the form of red and blue team exercises, those are typically conducted with the organization’s own security teams—teams that may be biased or complacent in various ways due to working regularly with the systems that are being tested.  This means that while red teaming can be very beneficial, it can lead to blind spots and a false sense of security.

By employing an outside team of ethical hackers an organization can get an idea of their security posture from an entirely different perspective, uncovering vulnerabilities that could be overlooked.  While you shouldn’t rely on these kinds of tests alone, together with your existing cybersecurity program ethical hacking can help you stay one step ahead of the bad guys.