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How I hate the term «Ethical Hacker» !

Younes on December 15, 2018

Be nice to me please, that's my first post and I don't have extraordinary English skills so feel free to correct me !😁 Nowadays, security has beco...
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Ben Halpern

So I prefer the terms "IT security expert", "pentester", ...

Same. You can't really control what the mainstream does with technical terms and titles, but it's worth trying to use good descriptive vocabulary where possible.

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Phil Ashby

Yep - it's enshrined in the Certified Ethical Hacker qualification, which was a bit naff in practice (I did V7 of this back in '09 I think) - my colleagues & I spent most of the week long course messing with the instructor's router, which was frankly rather more fun!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Et...

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Younes

Thanks for the feedback, I had planned to pass the certification and I see we're having fun there 😆

However, I don't know what "naff" means do you have a synonym? 😅

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Phil Ashby

You are welcome :)

naff - I used this to mean 'not very good', Urban dictionary has many other suggestions. I think I just expressed how British I am!

urbandictionary.com/define.php?ter...

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Younes

Thank's a lot 😇👌

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Younes

I agree with you too, thanks for the feedback! 😃

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Max Ong Zong Bao

To me, it just branding or marketing which it's newsworthy whenever it comes out in the news or when you're selling a security certificate.

The various hats that you had mentioned are just the difference in mindset, intent and circumstances on applying your skills for the good or the bad guys.

Which you can easily get tons of autobiographies of ex-hackers who turn into "ethical hackers" or WWII spies turning into double agents due to circumstances decided to use their skills to work for the good guys.

Here's a list of biographies of those "ethical hackers" and WWII double agents

1) Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security - amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlli...

2) Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal - amazon.com/Agent-Zigzag-Story-Espi...

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Younes

I agree, thank you for these precious resources! 😇

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Ondrej

Haven't read the second one, thanks for tip!

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Max Ong Zong Bao

It's an awesome read and without reading a book. I won't have believed that such a person like him exists during the world war II and well-liked by both sides of the war.

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Nathanael Demacon • Edited

"IT security expert" or "pentester" are very good terms, "Ethical Hacker" seems to be used by beginners or peoples who don't really know what an hacker do, which is very common and isn't a problem. Peoples who does head hunting doesn't necessarily know a lot about the domain they are recruiting for.

However, the deeper I go in IT security the more I find that the peoples who works in this domain are too much sensible about terms used to define a hacker, sometimes even the word "hacker" can be argued, which is literally a good term.

It's the same thing about the dark web, peoples who knows a little about security think that it's a "noob" term and must not be used, instead they use terms like the "Tor network", which is not really the dark net but a darknet, literally a private network.

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Younes

I think that, for someone who doesn't know anything about IT security, the term "ethical hacker" may sound more "cool".😄

I must admit that people like to show that they know their stuff by preaching to people to name something in the right way. (in their point of view)

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Younes

They swapped their hoodie for a shirt and a tie 😢😆

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Ali Sabri Sır

I agree ...