The history of ethical hacking dates back to the time when malicious parties first found a way to hijack digital systems and networks for their benefit. Ever since there has been a genuine cyber threat, there has been a presence of professionals trained to counter this cyber threat.
Initial Years
Ethical hacking first surfaced as a practice used by the US military. It was used back then to test the vulnerability of an operating system which was to be used to access and secure confidential information. Back then, ethical hacking was referred to as security evaluation.
The result of the exercise then was the selection of one particular OS amongst others to be used by the military for their own use.
Media Presence
Once hacking started becoming more and more of a real problem covered in news media as well, ethical hacking emerged as a counter movement to put a check on the threat posed by malicious parties.
Back in 1981, the New York Times covered white hat hacking, referring to its techniques as wrong, but necessary in the fight against malicious hackers.
Bringing Ethical Hacking to the Mainstream
Ethical hacking was brought to the mainstream by cybersecurity researchers Dan Farmer and WietseVenema. They together created a framework which allowed ethical hacking to be used as a technique to identify potential weaknesses in a system by using techniques used by black hat hackers. The idea was to make a system go through the same type of attacks and threats a typical cyber-attack would pose.
In 1992, the two researchers finally came up with a security tool which helped system admins prevent malicious parties from hacking their system. Their tool, named Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN) ended up getting launched amidst great media attention and fanfare.
In Conclusion
The history of ethical hacking began just when malicious black hats began making their presence known. While ethical hackers have a history of stopping severe threats, even one failure ends up becoming a mark of failure.
In this article, we discussed the history of ethical hacking and cybersecurity and its role in the tech space. If you find an interest in the field, consider joining the ethical hacking course offered at Kapil Heera Academy.
About the Author
Isha Malhotra serves as a faculty member at Delhi Courses Academy, where she specializes in Ethical Hacking course and Cyber Security Courses. With her solid technical background and interactive teaching methods, she ensures students gain in-depth practical exposure through the Ethical Hacking Course in Delhi.