{"id":858,"date":"2021-12-22T11:03:02","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T11:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcrcgroup.co.uk\/?p=543"},"modified":"2021-12-22T11:03:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T11:03:02","slug":"how-ethical-hacking-can-help-strengthen-your-cyber-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/how-ethical-hacking-can-help-strengthen-your-cyber-security\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hacking can Help Strengthen your Cyber Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcgwp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Nature_07-1024x434.png\" alt=\"Pebble stack representing strength in ethical hacking\" class=\"wp-image-609\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is hacking?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you think of when you hear the word \u201chacker\u201d?&nbsp;It may conjure images of hooded figures hunched over&nbsp;keyboards in dark rooms, and it&nbsp;certainly hints at nefarious digital activity.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what is a hacker really? And how can they hurt (or help) your business?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once&nbsp;solely&nbsp;the&nbsp;subject&nbsp;of&nbsp;Hollywood movies and social media rumour mills, hacking has now become an everyday reality and one of the challenges that all businesses must be prepared to face at any time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Put simply, hacking&nbsp;is the act of breaking into a computer system by circumventing&nbsp;its security measures.&nbsp;Hackers seek to find and exploit&nbsp;vulnerabilities in&nbsp;computer&nbsp;security systems in order to gain access, which they then use to carry out destructive, damaging or nuisance&nbsp;acts.&nbsp;They can steal passwords, access&nbsp;financial and&nbsp;social media accounts,&nbsp;install&nbsp;backdoors to your systems, and generally wreak havoc on your organisation\u2019s operations and&nbsp;reputation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The motivation behind hacking is difficult to define, as&nbsp;it is likely you&nbsp;will&nbsp;never know who was behind the assault, so it\u2019s impossible to know why your business was targeted.&nbsp;Therefore,&nbsp;cyber resilience&nbsp;needs to&nbsp;be a&nbsp;core consideration for all organisations, and an assumption must be made that an attack is imminent&nbsp;at any time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>Effects of hacking<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The scale of the threat&nbsp;from hacking&nbsp;is often underestimated, as almost every electronic device has the potential to be hacked.&nbsp;With the increasingly&nbsp;widespread use of internet of things (IoT) applications, this means that a&nbsp;significant amount of routine equipment can be impacted by cyber-crime.&nbsp;This includes, but is not limited to,&nbsp;mobile phones,&nbsp;digital locking systems,&nbsp;clocks,&nbsp;and refrigerators&nbsp;affecting anything from your&nbsp;air conditioning settings to your staff rotas.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How exactly can hacking affect my business?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><li><strong>The time it takes to recover from the attack<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 beyond the interruption of the initial strike, the impact of hacking can be felt for a long time afterward as it could take a substantial period to&nbsp;rebuild your defences, regain systems access&nbsp;and undo any damage done&nbsp;to restore business continuity&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Reputational damage<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 this can impact the legitimacy of your organisation, as you risk&nbsp;cultivating&nbsp;a negative perception&nbsp;amongst the public in terms of compliance, reliability and&nbsp;digital literacy&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Losing your users\u2019 trust<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 a major breach can make headlines and make your customers think twice about whether they can trust you to hold their&nbsp;personal&nbsp;information&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Theft of personal and sensitive data<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 from information about your employees to details on your clients, hacking exposes all your stakeholders to potential crime&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Vulnerable to being held to ransom<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 hackers may hold your data hostage and offer its return for a price, but this is no guarantee that you\u2019ll have your stolen information returned&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Risk of fines for data breaches&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2013 exposure or loss of users\u2019 personal data&nbsp;through negligence or lack of appropriate security measures&nbsp;can result in a hefty financial penalty from the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>By exposing themselves to hackers, businesses threaten every part of their operations,&nbsp;which&nbsp;can ultimately&nbsp;lead to decimation. A US&nbsp;government&nbsp;survey found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/statement\/cybersecurity-challenges-for-small-midsize-businesses.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">60%&nbsp;of&nbsp;small- to medium-sized&nbsp;businesses were unable to recover from a cyber-attack<\/a>&nbsp;and shut down within 6 months of the incident, showing just how devastating the impact of these attacks can be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges for small businesses<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While&nbsp;coming up against hackers is an accepted&nbsp;certainty for large companies, there is a perception that smaller&nbsp;businesses&nbsp;are less likely to&nbsp;sustain this type of online attack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Far from being too small to bother with,&nbsp;research has found that&nbsp;small businesses&nbsp;suffer more from hacking attacks than their larger counterparts, as hackers understand that they often employ less sophisticated and secure defences and therefore are&nbsp;more easily&nbsp;infiltrated.&nbsp;Although large businesses&nbsp;generally&nbsp;bear a greater financial cost&nbsp;as a result of&nbsp;cyber-attacks, the impact&nbsp;is likely to be felt more acutely by smaller organisations where&nbsp;additional factors like&nbsp;personal&nbsp;liability&nbsp;are&nbsp;of more concern.&nbsp;The&nbsp;interruption to business&nbsp;can also be devastating,&nbsp;impacting productivity, service provision and customer satisfaction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An additional challenge to contend with when fighting off hackers is the&nbsp;dynamic nature of&nbsp;technology itself. In a landscape of ceaseless&nbsp;innovation, it can seem like a herculean task for a small business to keep abreast of&nbsp;the&nbsp;changing security exploit opportunities that a hacker&nbsp;hunts&nbsp;full-time.&nbsp;Hackers are incredibly agile and regularly shift techniques in response to&nbsp;countermeasures, which highlights the importance of regular security monitoring and testing&nbsp;to pre-empt&nbsp;emerging offensive tactics.&nbsp;This is where&nbsp;the NCRCG can help.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ethical hacking<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It&nbsp;may&nbsp;sound counter-intuitive to fight hacking with hacking, but&nbsp;there\u2019s another side of the coin when it comes to hackers&nbsp;that may come as a surprise&nbsp;for those&nbsp;that put&nbsp;stock in stereotypes.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethical or \u201cwhite hat\u201d hackers&nbsp;work defensively to protect businesses from&nbsp;cyber attacks&nbsp;before they have a chance to happen. This legal form of hacking harnesses&nbsp;offensive hacking techniques for&nbsp;benevolent&nbsp;reasons and&nbsp;is carried out on behalf of&nbsp;an&nbsp;organisation by trained cyber security&nbsp;personnel&nbsp;to assist them in fortifying their defences and protecting their data.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An&nbsp;ethical hacker seeks to answer the following questions:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><li><strong>What vulnerabilities does a hacker see?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>What information would a hacker want to access?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>What could a hacker do with this information?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>How can the vulnerability&nbsp;(if any)&nbsp;be&nbsp;addressed?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They set about to find these answers by employing a range of&nbsp;tools and techniques,&nbsp;from&nbsp;basic security hygiene&nbsp;to&nbsp;port sniffing&nbsp;and&nbsp;phishing,&nbsp;and with their&nbsp;in-depth knowledge and advanced cybersecurity technical skills.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>Pen testing<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One key&nbsp;tool in a white hat hacker\u2019s arsenal is that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsc.gov.uk\/guidance\/penetration-testing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">penetration testing<\/a>, commonly known as \u201cpen testing\u201d.&nbsp;Pen testing&nbsp;sees an ethical hacker use the same methods as a&nbsp;hostile hacker would to&nbsp;break through your defences,&nbsp;with the aim of reasserting the&nbsp;system\u2019s strength&nbsp;and&nbsp;exposing any vulnerabilities.&nbsp;This allows the organisation to&nbsp;make&nbsp;the changes necessary to protect from a genuine cyber threat&nbsp;before any sensitive data is exposed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A pen test&nbsp;is essentially assessing&nbsp;an organisation\u2019s security preparedness, and follows a process&nbsp;as below:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:18px\"><li><strong>Reconnaissance<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 initial scoping to&nbsp;identify the extent of the&nbsp;system to be assessed and&nbsp;agree&nbsp;the&nbsp;approach and boundaries of the test&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Scanning<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;analysing&nbsp;how the system responds&nbsp;to attempted intrusion&nbsp;by inspecting application coding&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Gaining access<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 breaching the system defences by employing&nbsp;web application attacks&nbsp;such as&nbsp;backdoors and cross-site scripting&nbsp;to gain understanding of&nbsp;the harm that could be caused&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Maintaining access<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 imitating the strategies of malicious hackers,&nbsp;the ethical hacker will assess how long they can remain in the system&nbsp;to measure&nbsp;how much damage could potentially be done using the&nbsp;exposed&nbsp;vulnerability&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Analysis<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 reporting any issues that have been uncovered, assessing&nbsp;the level of risk each poses, and&nbsp;detailing methods of resolution&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They will then make recommendations based on their findings&nbsp;highlighting action points necessary to shore up the organisation\u2019s defences.&nbsp;This process allows businesses to have renewed confidence that they have the right strategies in place to protect&nbsp;their infrastructure&nbsp;and&nbsp;reaffirms their&nbsp;compliance&nbsp;and trustworthiness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\"><strong>How Cyber&nbsp;Resilience&nbsp;Centres&nbsp;Can&nbsp;Help<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Pen testing is a&nbsp;comprehensive&nbsp;and lengthy process that must be carried out by&nbsp;specialists;&nbsp;consequently,&nbsp;it is something that many small businesses don\u2019t have the capacity to undertake themselves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those&nbsp;organisations&nbsp;without an internal&nbsp;team dedicated to cyber&nbsp;security,&nbsp;the National Cyber Resilience Centre Group exists to&nbsp;provide expert&nbsp;guidance&nbsp;and&nbsp;support and&nbsp;can connect your business with these services to&nbsp;strengthen its cyber resilience.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get in touch today to see how we can help your business&nbsp;to manage cyber threats&nbsp;and ensure business continuity when&nbsp;an attack does occur.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcgcontact-us\/\" style=\"background-color:#e44704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcgcontact-us\/ noopener\">Contact Us<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is hacking? And how can it hurt (or help) your business?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,20,13,21,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber-attack","category-cyber-resilience","category-cyber-security","category-ethical-hacking","category-smes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatbuzzhosting.com\/ncrcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}