Ethical hackers: putting on the white hat

Ethical hackers are fast becoming an essential part of an enterprise's network security armoury. So-called 'white hats' - to distinguish them from their malicious black hat counterparts - are increasingly fulfilling a role beyond penetration testing. As the threats change, the skill sets of ethical hackers are changing too, encompassing social engineering, social networking and consumer mobile technologies. Ethical hackers are fast becoming an essential part of an enterprise's network security armoury. As the threats change, the skillsets of ethical hackers are changing too, encompassing social engineering, social networking and consumer mobile technologies. Career development may be along a number of routes but essential attributes for all ethical hackers are patience, lateral thinking and an ability to keep abreast of rapidly changing network threats. Tracey Caldwell looks at the skills required.