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21 Jun 2006
Abertay University in Dundee will launch the UK's first 'ethical hacking' course in September in a bid to train more white hat hackers to fight the growing threat of cyber-crime.
The BSc (Hons) in Ethical Hacking & Countermeasures is being championed by the university's School of Computing & Creative Technologies.
According to the course syllabus, an ethical hacker essentially evaluates the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack by a malicious hacker.
The process involves an active analysis of the system for any weaknesses, technical flaws or vulnerabilities.
Security issues will be presented to the system owner together with an assessment of their impact, often with a proposal for mitigation or a technical solution to the problem.
"This undergraduate programme aims to equip graduates with detailed knowledge of the nature of electronic attacks and methods that computer criminals use," the university said.
"Countermeasure techniques and strategies will be examined for their suitability against these attacks, and graduates will be equipped with the skills to analyse and secure computer systems and networks.
"They will also design countermeasures against criminal intrusion, penetration and hacking, and continuously update and develop their knowledge and skills in this rapidly changing area."
Abertay believes that a potentially large job market is emerging for graduates from the course as an increasing number of auditors are insisting that companies have their networks penetration tested for legal purposes.
Along with the Data Protection Act and legislation being introduced that demands security testing as part of the due diligence required in financial systems, the increase in the job market for graduates is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, the university said.
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Comment
From the research I have done on this area, I can tell you that this course is about programming, pen testing and ethical hacking. I do agree with the guy who said you are born a hacker, just like people are born dyslexic. But this course is not about looking through decompiled program source code to find exploits, but more about using third party tool to find out if a system has exploits. Just remember to become a Ethical hacker you 1st need the knowledge so that you can apply it to your ideas, not every one can sit at a computer and do research.
Posted by: Non for u to know 15 Jan 2007
mmmmmmmmmmm hacking course
Interesting but it should be called CRACKING as hacking is malicous attacking of a system not testing for security issues, does nobody understand the difference these days....
Posted by: cockeye 07 Jul 2006
Its a Great Idea
Firstly to the person who commented about hacking, I have disregarded what your entire argument was about because of louzy spelling, Hacking In Whatever form is the breaching a system hackers can take control of systems delete files etc, A course like this is good and bad, its good as more flaws in security systesm can be foud and fixed however those who earn the degrees may offer their services to criminals wanting to exploit systems.
Posted by: Steven 22 Jun 2006
insecurity
This is a good development but it might increase system insecurity in the future.
Posted by: Benjamin Odenigbo 21 Jun 2006
bad terminology
This isn't a course on hacking. It's a course on computer cracking. Real hacking is something totally different and can't be taught. Hackers are born that way. It's a way of thinking. Being able to instinctively know the shortest distance between 2 points where normal people wouldn't. Or to solve problems in creative ways others wouldn't think of. It has nothing to do with computers, really. Hackers existed long before computers were even thought of. I have seen hackers from all kinds of occupations, from chefs to seamstresses to scientists to teachers. Even your grandma could be a hacker, or your 4 year old child. One thing they all have in common though: they become respected experts in what they do.
Posted by: offended 21 Jun 2006
haha
now this is funny, the real hacker doesnt destroy anything from a system it hacks, the honoruable one sends the exploit report to the administrator and how to fix the flaw of his system anyway....so all this white hat hackers is just big bullshit, those ppl that destroy systems arnt hackers they are something different so dont bring this propaganda of "hackers" destroying stuff because your wrong
Posted by: Sandor Renz 21 Jun 2006