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Danish Jamil et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

IS ETHICAL HACKING ETHICAL?

DANISH JAMIL
Department of Computer Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology,
Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan
mallick251@hotmail.com

MUHAMMAD NUMAN ALI KHAN
Department of Computer Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology,
Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan
mallick89@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract :

This paper explores the ethics behind ethical hacking and whether there are problems that lie with this new field
of work. Since ethical hacking has been a controversial subject over the past few years, the question remains of
the true intentions of ethical hackers. The paper also looks at ways in which future research could be looked into
to help keep ethical hacking, ethical.

Keywords— Ethical hacking, hacking, hackers, education and training, risk management, automated
security

I. INTRODUCTION
Understanding the true intentions of the general public is quite a hard task these days, and it is even harder so, to
understand the intentions of every single ethical hacker getting into vulnerable systems or networks. Technology
is ever growing and we are encountering tools that are beneficial to the general public, but in the wrong hands
can create great controversy, breaching our basic right to privacy, respect and freewill. The constant issues
highlighted by the media always reporting some type of cyber crime, a study showing that nearly 90% of attacks
happen on the inside [1] raising concerns of how easy it is to be working on the inside to be able to infiltrate
attacks. Has ethical hacking finally come to the rescue for solving the problems or has it created new ones?

2. DISCUSSION
A. Education and training

The problem of teaching students to hack is still a very serious issue that we face today; course leaders feel that
they will teach students how to improve intrusion. To understand the true intentions of students is very hard to
pinpoint so the reason why ethical hacking should be used is very much a debate. Teaching a student to hack
and later discover that knowledge was used to commit crimes will definitely have an impact on society as to
why he was allowed to understand how to hack in the first place, but we cannot, simply, pinpoint our argument
to say that it was the fault of the course leaders that allowed him to undertake the course [2]. If that were the
case, then we would have major problems in other areas, such as when cars are constructed they are crash tested
to fully understand areas of improvement to give users a reliable car, if companies did not test the issues, would
it be the fault of the manufacturer if the car was involved in a car crash. Teaching students to hack in effect
gives them a global knowledge of how to hack into computer systems with the help of University lecturers. The
threat they pose is unimaginable. With the current state of mind students are in, it is easy to imagine what kinds
of threats they pose, some in the past have gone on gun sprees, killing innocent students, some starting terrorist
plots and now the University helps in causing damage to networks, essentially giving students of “how to do it”
directly, showing tools that can be used to do such crimes, similar to giving a burglar a crowbar to break into

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houses. “A problem with teaching undergraduate students using this approach is that the instructor is effectively
providing them with a loaded gun” [3], [4].

Once a student acquires new skills they may use them for good or even for bad intentions, certain policies that
are not being applied at university that need to address issues for students conducting malicious acts, however
these can be rectified by applying security checks on individuals which Universities do for certain courses such
as ethical hacking. A criminal background check, the requirement of some sort of professional certification, and
student interviews are a few measures that could potentially weed out several, if not all, students with potential
malevolent intentions [5]. With an array of training courses that are available around the world it would be a
difficult task to understand the reason behind their interest in the course. It could be the fact that the individual
has been interested in security for a long time and that his main objective is to perfect his CV for better job
Prospects and a better salary; the fact cannot be ignored that ethical hackers are highly paid individuals. To a
certain extent ethical hacking is ethical. If we did not have such measures in place we would need to manually
ensure that our systems are safe, so ethical hacking can ensure safety of our systems if conducted ethically

B. Trusting the potential enemy

No one individual in this world is the same; their looks, shape, size and even mental states, and the actions for
any one individual cannot be perceived as one would hope to, to remedy problems two totally different
individual would need to be hired to run tests for companies so that no one individual can have total freedom
with any one system. The need for secure information is important and maybe an important factor into ethical
hacking. Concerned individuals would want to understand certain things about themselves or society in general;
this information can lead to major problems of who can obtain that information and who should see it.

Hacking is wrong for any gain whether that is financial or personal. It can be argued that after working on a big
projects with one of the countries big financial companies to find security flaws to help remedy problems, can
help to reinforce the knowledge of a ethical hacker and sometime in the future out of curiosity or through spite
breach his contract and sell his ideas to criminals. It was argued that this can be achieved and that this is one of
the many problems ethical hacking faces. It is believed that Christians and Muslims feel that committing
adultery is wrong and is a major sin. Fundamentally, there is a distinction between ethics and religion, but the
urge of wanting you not to do it does not prevent you and you may go ahead and do it anyway. “…used to
explain how different people have different perception of right or wrong, depending on their religion, culture or
society.”[6] Hackers have a tendency of gaining access to systems and may well know that it is wrong but for
that same religious reason, make them want to do it for pleasure or other means.

With the growth of the technological aspects of business it is fast growing that all our data is to be made
electronic; all business transactions are done electronically to try and bring us into the next generation. eBay for
example is a global auction site that persuade businesses to sell their goods, allows an auction room in the
comfort of our own homes. Ethical hackers can and may use their abilities to try and avoid paying for items they
have brought because they know they can. They use their power to “help themselves” without being caught, at
the expense of others, and can be seen as ethical hackers occasional job, essentially in this sense ethical hackers
by day and wear black hats when they need to! Unfortunately, some of the skilled professionals use their
abilities to harm the society, by finding the vulnerabilities in the companies’ systems and attacking them,
creating and distributing viruscontaining codes, finding the ways to avoid payments for the desires services…
[7]

The idea of corruption can be seen as a major issue in ethical hacking and who we can trust to do the job for us.
An ethical hacker may do the job and do it well, but to understand his true intentions can be justifiable. If the
ethical hacker is corrupt then maybe the company is corrupt if they deny any mishaps in checked securities that
is when an EH has produced his report and the company gets hacked, the company would turn to the security
testers who tested the system. It is understood that the idea here is rather extreme but we need to understand the
possibility.

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C. Risk Management

Ethical hackers are highly paid professionals with a legitimate status and a means of access. They can minimise
the risk of impact, clearly identifying benefits and flaws helping senior company directors to understand if such
activities should be undertaken. Ethical hackers could explore vulnerabilities beforehand to minimise the risk.
The company could undertake penetration tests to find if they are vulnerable to attack. Finding vulnerabilities
for companies not only helps the company but also minimises the risks of attacks, however ethical hackers have
five days in general to perform tests, what happens if vulnerabilities are overlooked. If an ethical hacker fails to
deliver results to the business and assumes the system is safe and that it has no problems, who can be liable for
legal actions if a malicious hacker gets into the system? Surprisingly, a journal by IBM on ethical hacking
reports, “….the client might ask “So, if I fix these things I'll have perfect security, right?” "Unfortunately, this is
not the case. People operate the client's computers and networks, and people make mistakes. The longer it has
been since the testing was performed, the less can be reliably said about the state of a client's security. A
portion of the final report includes recommendations for steps the client should continue to follow in order to
reduce the impact of these mistakes in the future.” [8]

There is little possibility of ethical hacking in work places if information is not accurate. If a company has been
hacked ethically, what is the colour of the individual’s hat is it black or white? Giving special privileges to users
then to return with non-accurate information as Palmer [6] describes we can ask ourselves what the differences
are, as opposed to using normal security software to do the job for you. Deeper analyses showed that correctly
programming systems initially would help to improve security. The main concern would be the cost to both
manage and administer to provide great solutions. The idea of self-improving can be another issues, so to whom
we can allow these improvements, the company or the ethical hackers to increase their knowledge and thus
getting enough information they can get hold of and then launching attacks from different parts of the world as a
ethical hacking regime that would build knowledge by posing as ethical hackers and getting information to
exploit. Another way to view this is, if legitimate ethical hackers who aim to remedy security issues, whether
they should be allowed to access certain information and be entered into security barriers. In order to do the job
we must have some leeway and be allowed to use certain tools to help them with their job, the example of
Randal Schwartz, who was sentenced for only doing his job, best describes the need to use tools without any
question, to identify security vulnerabilities. Ethical hackers can identify problems, but to what extent, even they
would not realise a normal virus eating away at data, they may miss it or let it go since they only have a limited
time to perform test, it is the hackers intent to bypass and deceive the network, the ethical hacker may be
vigilant of this and compromise the network leaving it till problems arise, +therefore raising the issue of “man
on the inside”, so essentially ethical hackers may find it easier for hackers to infiltrate their attacks.

D. Helping the enemy

Almost nothing is secure in our technological world, there is freedom of information and is out there for anyone
hungry enough to want it. CAPTCHA is a Turing test application that makes accurate distinctions between
humans from computers, which can help us understand attacks more clearly and prevent them from happening.
Making the distinction between humans and computers help us to rectify problems and to further administer
them, that is to say catch the human criminals and let the computers do their job. There are many tools that are
available that help ethical hackers help them do their job effectively. It can be understood that there are different
varieties of the same tool, a couple of tools that can be used by the ethical hacker to hack systems is NMap to
find open ports but this is readily available for anyone to download and use, Acunetix, another commercial
package that tests for web application vulnerabilities but can be available unethically by a hacker using certain
cracks that can be found on the internet These tools can be used by a normal hacker as well as an ethical hacker,
the hackers uses them for criminal intentions and the ethical hacker uses them for the benefit of the organization
to help identify weaknesses and flaws in the security.

Google is a great search engine that allows valuable and sometimes illegal information to be obtained. Google
causes privacy concerns, for the true people that understand how to obtain such information by using clever
commands can use Google as a helpful tool into getting as much information as possible. Is it ethical for Google
to hold such information about a certain individual or companies? Certainly, the answer here would be no, it

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allows us to obtain sensitive information about our targets, good for the hacker, but bad for the target. Though it
is still available, companies must ensure that all employees don’t send any sensitive information across the
internet. Google can play a major part as to giving valuable and sometimes sensitive information. This causes
great concern for the individuals that purchase or have web servers with valuable information. With further
investigation Google allows retrieving valuable information. Let us take for example shipping a valuable
package and that it is decided to be sent using the online system to save time of having to go to the post office,
UPS provide a service that makes this possible.

If a person makes a booking to send a parcel, UPS would collect the package and send it to the desired location.
A would be hacker could intercept the booking and impersonate as the company and intercept the package.
Using clever searches on Google private video cameras are not so private, searches show that we can access
information directly through Google allowing the would be criminals to execute a perfect crime without even
doing field research. If a ethical hacker was able to track the day to day activities of a certain petrol station, he
or she, as a thief could easily calculate the times of business and more importantly the amount of time he/she
have to commit the perfect crime, giving them a specific and accurate time window. The most important and
widely obtainable information is that of passwords, a search "Index of /" +password.txt”, can allow a range of
different passwords searched from databases, allowing hackers in general to wide range of information allowing
them to commit unsettling crimes.

Google in general can be a very powerful tool that helps assists hacker in a major way, to help minimise the
problem can be difficult as we would need separate servers to store information which can be costly and time
consuming. Allowing individuals to do such activities helps increase knowledge of the enemy whether they are
terrorists or criminals therefore helping the enemy commit crimes which raises issues that Google can be
blamed in allowing hackers such information, so it can be argued that Google does help administer some issues
making ethical hacking unethical, since everyone has access to this information.

E. Applying ethical hacking in practise

Now if we see this problem at real life level instead of merely the theoretical playing field one would also have
to seriously consider the ethics of allowing ethical hackers into systems of the government calibre such as police
databases or DVLA records could make a strong case in terms of safety. One memorised record that is not
directly linked to the penetration tester at the time can be obtained and exploited, so the trust of information is
again infringed upon. Ethical hackers working in banks would create another controversy, having access to
valuable data ranging from student accounts to high senior executives, the desire to steal or memorise one
account detail would be enough to help. With many online frauds being committed these days it would create
problems in tracking down ethical hackers and pinning the blame, having access to accounts will, in effect
blame the ethical hacker even if they did not commit the crime, so in certain environments where fraud is likely
to take place can indeed raise issues. This argument is very important to address since if a job was given to an
ethical hacker to check vulnerabilities in banking systems, and a week later several accounts were hacked then
who would be to blame, most certainly it would raise question marks. Now let us imagine the scenario of a
residential care home and allowing access to systems for administration for safety measures. Members of any
community, whether they reside in private homes, large public buildings or residential care homes are entitled to
a certain level of privacy. Most weaknesses occur more readily through humans rather than computer errors, but
it can be argued that computer failure rates can be between 10-15% therefore allowing a hacker to explore the
system within a given time period at the time of failure. One can assume that in this program each resident
would receive a number and their daily routines and whereabouts could easily be accessed via the network,
whether the patient is playing cards or taking a shower. Certainly no person would be comfortable knowing a
network administrators could easily decipher when they were showering, using the bathroom or getting ready
for bed. This brings us to another potential ethical issue. Could it not be said that such a system could potentially
open up the patients.

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of the home, who are already vulnerable, to potential danger as someone could easily figure out their given
routine? Surely it is a possibility.

F. The problem inside!
Understanding insider attacks is a big problem finding the reasons behind the attacks that take place are rather
clear, the shear greed for financial gain. Most cases deal with disgruntled employees who ask for raises and then
commit fraud, most frauds lure employees to steal vital information from their company and start their own
company, starting their own company with full knowledge of the potential profits this can be done by stealing,
ethical hackers can be presented with a great deal of information that could help, it is also suggested that people
within the organisation tend not to suspect insiders and focus the problem on outsider attacks. Over the past 10
years or so there has been many UK frauds taken place from insider attacks. It is also suggested that 28% of
fraud takes place by employees and their partners and currently 33%; the growing concern is at the “top”,
employees feel that if the manager can do it so can they. KPMG imply that 42% of frauds committed are from
insider attacks which clearly imply that an insider attack contributes to most of the attacks that take place, trust
and knowledge being the most important factor from within the business that contributes to the attacks [1].

3. COUNTERING THE PROBLEMS
To counter problems researchers are looking towards new ways of improving ethical hacking and hacking in
general from inside the company. One approach is to use models to monitor employees closely to reduce the risk
of impact. One solution is to use a model approach that can seriously help in ethical hacking. Not only does this
model help; it also tries to reduce the impact by identifying implications early enough to help reduce the impact
of confrontation. The model depicted from [9] gives an insight to the problem and how it can be helped. To
minimise risks and to further monitor the behaviour of ethical hackers and to try to eliminate the problems as
and when they occur.

Figure 1 Insider attack analysis [9]

Figure 1 Insider attack analysis [9]

Not only can these models be used in the workplace they can be adopted in other fields of work such as
education. Another solution could be to automate ethical hacking which causes great concerns in allowing
machines take over jobs of humans, the biggest problem that lies here is that machines are prone to making
mistakes and can sometimes even crash [10]. An approach that focuses on a particular attack.

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Blockage of back door leak by automatic system
Figure 2 Blockage of backdoor leak by autonomic system [10]

4. CONCLUSIONS
To conclude the paper reports a lot of relevant information that will raise issues in the future and whether the
problem needs to be handled. Technology has continued to grow at a high rate over the years and continues to
do so; scholars are putting themselves in vulnerable positions by helping individuals to hack. The mind is a very
powerful tool that has no control, the control will continue to grow proportionally with the desire to get
knowledge of something that is impossible to achieve in its entity, but not forgotten in its entirety. Hackers will
always find ways of getting into systems, whether they are doing it for good or bad.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I convey my honest thanks to Dr. Syed Faisal Ahmed Bukhari Chairman of Computer Engineering Department
in the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology for providing me the leadership and conveniences for
this paper. I expand my truthful gratitude to Mr. Waqas Sadiq for his cooperation for presenting this paper. I
also extend my sincere thanks to all other faculty members of Sir Syed University of Engineering and
Technology and my friends for their support and encouragement.

6. REFERENCES
[1] A. Durant, "The Enemy Within", BusinessXL, pp 48-51, 2007.
[2] RD. Hartley, “Ethical Hacking: Teaching Students to Hack”, EastCarolina University, http://www.techspot.com/news/21942-
universityoffers-ethical-hacking-course.html, , 2002.
[3] T. Wulf, “Teaching ethics in undergraduate network”, Consortium forComputing Sciences in College, Vol 19 Issue 1, 2003.
[4] Jeffrey Livermore, Walsh College, Member, IEEE Computer Society 2007.
[5] Logan and Clarkson, Is it Safe? Information Security Education: Are We Teaching a Dangerous Subject?, Proceedings of the 8th
Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education, West Point, NY, 2004.
[6] SA. Saleem, Ethical Hacking as a risk management technique, ACM New York, NY, USA, 2006.
[7] N.B. Sukhai, “Hacking And Cybercrime”, AT&T, 2005.
[8] C.C. Palmer, Ethical hacking, IBM systems journal, http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/403/palmer.html, 2001.
[9] S. Band, D. Cappelli, L. Fischer, AP. Moore, RF. Trzeciak and E. Shaw, “Comparing Insider IT Sabotage and Espionage: A Model-
Based Analysis”, Carnegie Mellon University, 2006.
[10] D. M. Chess, C. C. Palmer, S. R. White, Security in an autonomic computing environment, IBM Systems journal, Vol 42, No 1, 2003

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