With more than 20 years of experience in the IT world, Jochen den Ouden works as a Certified Ethical Hacker. The editors of PONT Data & Privacy spoke with him about the social importance of ethical hacking in an increasingly digitalized society.
A CEH is simply someone who hacks from a good standpoint to make the world a safer place regarding digital data. As an ethical hacker, I try to help organizations handle their data better and guard against attackers. 'Certified' literally means that I have obtained a certificate to show that I have the necessary skills to continue doing my job.
I had a background as a computer scientist and as a result made a foray into education. I have always hacked for charities in my life, and then I thought it would be a good idea to teach this to students as well. Since founding my company, I stopped teaching, but I thought it was an interesting project.
These days, everything has gone digital. Municipalities deliver their services digitally, and even the bakery bills your bread using a digital payment method. This is where much of our data is stored. There is no social platform today that does not ask for a piece of our privacy. What I see as very problematic is how malicious people can exploit the vulnerabilities of these platforms for their own illegal purposes, at the expense of our privacy and finances. The danger of cybercrime is really a serious problem.
Not everyone necessarily needs to become an ethical hacker. Still, it is wise to be able to think about security and privacy issues from a hacker's perspective. The PONT Data & Privacy course I will be teaching on Oct. 10 will focus on this perspective. Everyone has secrets and data that need to be properly protected, and it is precisely by thinking like a cybercriminal that we can better protect ourselves."
