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Security Technology >> Hack Job
3/31/2005
He advocates the use of off-the-shelf consumer products such as firewalls and IPS tools, but notes that the key to success with these is staying on top of patches, and incorporating them with proprietary security measures. Last, Spafford calls for depth in a network, noting that the more systems a hacker has to hack to get to the heart of a network, the more secure that network really is.“In the sense that most systems will eventually be penetrated, this notion of ethical hacking begs the question of ‘Why Bother?’” quips Spafford, also a professor of computer sciences. “It d'esn’t make any sense, because by the mere nature of systems architecture, you will always find flaws.”
Down the Road
Trends, however, may be proving Spafford wrong. A number of schools are beginning to offer classes in ethical hacking to get their system administrators up to speed in frontline network defense. A new class at Mt. Sierra College (CA), for instance, is designed to teach students how people will try to break into network systems—and how they will succeed. For $4,000, the course prepares corporate-level students for an exam offered by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants, or EC-Council. Instructors race through topics like symmetric versus asymmetric encryption, hacker attack behaviors, and well-known network weak points. If the students pass the test, they get the ultimate seal of approval: Certified Ethical Hacker.
Another class, this one at Marshall University (WV), teaches undergraduate and graduate students about security by familiarizing them with common tools and strategies that hackers use. And while the class curriculum d'esn’t specifically help students learn how to go about hacking a network, Brian Morgan, assistant professor of Integrated Science and Technology, admits that intelligent students can certainly “put two and two together” from what they learn, and do just about anything they’d like. Morgan says he put the class together after he had taken an ethical hacking course sponsored by New Horizons Computer Learning Centers (www.newhorizons.com), a company that sponsors a variety of distance education opportunities. Down the road, he says, he hopes to develop a new course specifically geared toward teaching students how to engage in ethical hacking of their own.
“This kind of knowledge will only help students once they go out into
the real world and get jobs in the IT departments of big companies that take
security a lot more seriously [than we do in academia],” Morgan says.
“In the long run, no matter what your personal opinions on the subject
might be, the ability to think like a hacker and strengthen your network as
a result of it, is a valuable skill to have.”
Matt Villano is senior contributing editor of this publication.
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