A Guide On How Ethical Hackers Work To Report And Patch Vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity is the most commonly used term and almost everyone using the web is aware of the consequence of ignoring security steps provided by experts. However, the few things – that are extremely important – that most people are unaware of are given below.

• Everything on the web is a computer including IP computers and surveillance recorders
• Every single code has bugs. In fact, the more complex the code is, the more vulnerabilities it has
• No single software or firmware can ever be designed to remain bug-free forever
• Every smart device and software is a computer that is very much hackable
• Despite providing constant updates, there can still be hidden vulnerabilities that can put the information of users at risk

However, despite the problems, people cannot stop using computers since everything on the internet is actually a computer. So, instead of worrying about bugs as a software developer and a company, worry about the ways to uncover them and patch them before they are hacked by unethical hacked. And the best way to combat the attempts to hack devices with ill-motives is by using the skills of ethical hackers.

Who Are Ethical Hackers And How Do They Help?

Just with the same skill sets as that of unethical hackers, the ethical community works on ways to identify vulnerabilities in software or firmware and report them to the concerned software developers. You can run bug bounty programs to let this cyber cleaning community ensure that the software applications you’re using are safe for users. The ways in which they work are given below.

• When invited to scan a software after or before a software application is released, they start scanning every line of every code.
• Once they find out the vulnerability, they approach the software developing company instead of anyone else.
• The company is then supposed to remove those bugs and pay a bounty to the hacker that identifies the bug.
• The bounty could be money or recognition or both
• Once the vulnerability is fixed, the software is sent back to the hacker to examine and ensure it is properly patched and sealed
• Only after complete inspection that the code is no longer infected that users are prompted and given updates to install the upgrades released
• After the completion of all these steps, the ethical hacker that identified the vulnerability in the first place is allowed to disclose it to the public

This is the reason that you should keep upgrading the applications as soon as updates are released by the software developers. The users that ignore updates are actually still using the vulnerable version. And unethical hackers target such devices and applications.