College course- is this the same as Ethical Hacking?

Question

Hey guys- I had a quick question. At the risk of asking my school advisers, there's a class called Ethics in Information Technology. The description is..

"This course introduces the information technology (IT) or business
student to ethics and top IT ethical concerns. Topics covered include
file sharing, intellectual property, intellectual freedom, security risks,
Internet crime, identity theft, employee surveillance, privacy, and social
responsibility. Additionally, students will explore how IT professional
organizations and leaders address ethical issues and how ethical
frameworks can be used as tools in decision-making and daily conduct."

I've heard some schools have what is called Ethical Hacking (or something meaning this by another name). I was wondering if this course sounds like an Ethical Hacking course.

Answer 1

I guess it depends on how you'd define an ethical hacking course. This sounds more like an ethics/philosophy course; I would consider an ethical hacking course to explain the mechanics behind actually breaking into systems, etc.



Still sounds like it would be interesting, though.

Answer 2

No, that's not "ethical hacking." It's just an ethics course targeted at the ethics issues that computer professionals are faced with and how to deal with them. A quick example: How would you deal with the CEO in a large financial company who insisted on using passwords that violated corporate password complexity rules? Or who demanded Enterprise Admin level access to all systems. (Been there, done that! Good luck with it!)



Ethical Hacking is the practice of security professionals using the same tools and methods to attempt to hack a network as are used by the criminal elements, in order to assess the vulnerability of systems to attack.



The course description has nothing to do with "ethical hacking" per-se but may address the issue in passing, possibly describing the concepts and ethical risks but not the methods and procedures. Ethical Hacking certainly ties in closely with ethics, but it's not the same course.

Answer 3

It's not a hacking course, it's simply a business ethics course.



A good example of "ethical hacking" is the CEH certificate from eccouncil, this training includes both ethics and some entry level hacking. This is the one you've been hearing.

http://eccouncil.org/ceh.htm