The growth of Internet caused computer security becoming a major concern for any kind of businesses, institutions and governments.

Everyone who has a presence in Internet wants to take advantage for ecommerce, advertising, information sharing, access, etc., but they are afraid about the possibility of being "cracked". "Cracking" is the word which is used for an intrusion on a system, personal computer, server, network, etc., violating its security and with the purpose of stealing or damage information on it.

In the same way, customers and / or visitors are afraid about their personal information, which is credit card numbers, social security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Beyond any real reason an attacker can have to enter an alien system, its conduct is always considered as an unwanted intrusion, a kind of undesired invasion of a private space, a violation of a clearly defined limit he is not entitled to pass.

And, the number of this kind of attacks or intents was constantly growing in the last year, due to the massive spreading of network technology and the globalization of information.

One of the most effective remedies against this kind of threats is recognized to be the use of the same weapons the attackers are using. In this case, companies who want to secure their private networks, servers, databases, Websites, etc. contract especially skilled computer experts to simulate any possible kind of attack, to reveal weak points in their systems and to implement the most adequate countermeasures.

These security specialists are named "ethical hackers". The real meaning of the word "hacker", based on The New Hacker's Dictionary, E. S. Raymond, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1991) is:

1. A person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems and how to stretch their capabilities-as opposed to most users of computers, who prefer to learn only the minimum amount necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.

But, in the last years, the word "hacker" was repeatedly used by any large information media in a very derogatory sense, to represent a bad guy who violates systems with the purpose of damaging them or stealing secrets or private data. The correct term to define these bad guys is "crackers", not hackers, but most people confuse both these words, associating in their minds a hacker with a very bad acting person.

This is the reason why the adjective "ethical" was introduced to specify a skilled technician, a hacker, who acts using the same techniques of a cracker, but for a good and useful purpose.

Ethical hacking is a very specific activity, which requires high knowledge of systems and security, very much discipline and a huge quantity of patience.

Ethical hacking is conducted under the full consciousness of the contractor, through a very detailed operational scheme, in a discrete form and without molesting the normal operational capacity of the client, its organization and its computer systems.

As reported in an article of C. C. Palmer, ethical hacking activity answers basically the following 4 questions:

1. What information, locations, and systems can an intruder gain access?
2. What can an intruder see on the target facilities, networks and systems?
3. What can an intruder do with that information and data?
4. Does anyone at the target notice the intruder's attempts or successes?

And, the client is called to answer as exact as possible the following questions:

1. What do you want or have to protect?
2. What do you want to protect against?
3. How much are you willing to expend for an adequate protection?

Normally, who less knows about what is to be protected is the client. And, he also does not know exactly against what he wants to protect his information. So, it is the security company, through its team of ethical hackers, which has to orient the client, explaining him what really is necessary to do for the best protection of its valuable goods.

We in Discovery Internet have a high skilled Team of ethical hackers, which is able to develop any kind of operation to guarantee all necessary implementations for the best results in security and protection against any kind of intrusions or attacks in general.