Once your business reaches a certain size or level of success, new vendors start coming out of the woodwork. Suddenly, there are lawyers, accountants, and marketing experts who want to help you grow.
Some of these experts can be extraordinarily helpful, saving you time, money, and frustration (naturally, a great managed services provider falls into this category). Others might be unnecessary, especially if you don’t truly understand what they do or how they can help.
That brings us to a question we have heard once or twice in the past: should you ever hire “ethical hackers” to break into your company and test for vulnerabilities?
Let’s break down the answer into a few parts…
How “Ethical Hacking” or “Business Hacking” is Supposed to Work
Some of the best security consultants in the world are former criminals. After all, if you wanted to know whether your house was safe from burglars, wouldn’t it make sense to get the advice of someone who used to commit smash-and-grab crimes themselves?
That’s the theory behind ethical hacking. You pay someone who could break into your business maliciously to look for problems and then report them to you. That way you get the answers you need without the damage and losses that would come with an actual cybersecurity incident. It’s supposed to be a win-win situation. But do you actually need something like that?
Why Most Businesses Don’t Need to Hire Hackers
It is entirely possible that a vendor could find some vulnerabilities in your business website, particularly if they are skilled in that line of “work.” However, it might not be in your best interests to hire them.
To understand why, there are a couple of things you have to know:
- First, most hackers aren’t running sophisticated schemes or attacks. So, the issues they could find on your website might be very common.
- To that point, small website vulnerabilities can easily be detected using normal auditing tools – the kind any web designer or IT vendor would use anyway.
By giving someone you don’t know permission to hack your site, or offering them access to sensitive information, you could accidentally invite crime.
This is all a way of saying that your average ethical hacker isn’t going to find anything that a normal website or data security stress test wouldn’t. So, it makes more sense to pay a team of professionals who can also fix other problems rather than having someone address a single specific issue with your data security.
There are exceptions to this rule of thumb, of course. If you use an unusual combination of software and apps, for example, have a huge company that would be an obvious target for hackers, or frequently deal with sensitive and valuable pieces of information, then the extra layer of protection might be a good idea.
Looking for IT Advice You Can Actually Use?
At Fantastic IT we have learned that most of our clients aren’t concerned with the technical details associated with computer repairs and managed services – what they want is fast and friendly tech support that gets results. If you want the best in advice, customer care, and information that’s relevant to your company’s bottom line, visit our blog again soon.
Or better yet, contact us today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about what we can do for you!