History indicates that we are at the forefront of an era in which criminal hackers develop tools and techniques to steal your money using your own cell phone.

Fifteen years ago, cell phones were so bulky and cumbersome, they had to be carried in bags or briefcases. Then they became chunky, heavy bricks. Calls dropped every other minute. Clearly, cell phones have evolved since then. Today’s cell phone is a lot more than a phone. It’s a computer, one that rivals many desktops and laptops being manufactured today. A cell phone can pretty much do everything a PC can do, including online shopping, banking, and merchant credit card processing.

The personal computer started out slow and stodgy, and was mainly used for things like word processing and solitaire. Today, PCs are fast, multimedia machines, capable of performing amazing tasks.

There are consequences to the rapid evolution of these technologies.

A decade ago, during the slow, dial up era, hackers (and, in the beginning, phreakers) hacked for fun and fame. Many wreaked havoc, causing problems that crippled major networks. And they did it without today’s sophisticated technology.

In theory at least, the Wild West days of the Internet are over. Based upon the inventions articulated in his five-patent suite, inventor, Harry Emerson III, has mapped out a union between our secure and venerable telephone system – AKA POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) – and the hyper-evolving, media-rich Internet which is so famously not one bit secure. As it evolves, he believes this next generation telecommunications system, dubbed IronPipe(TM), will have huge implications for national security as well as tremendous new revenue opportunities for the carriers and supply chains which serve them. Conceived in response to what he views as the seriously flawed paradigm which is currently developing as telecommunications migrate to the Internet, Mr. Emerson says he designed IronPipe(TM) to offer an alternative with a high degree of security. The Internet has produced something akin to a gold rush experience for those mining its resources and developing its vast potentialities, he said. But, in the midst of this frenzy, he has observed that fundamental requirements of privacy, secrecy, and security are seldom openly discussed when it comes to Internet-based phone services known as “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems such as SKYPE, which are rapidly being developed.

The Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures examination are known globally in different examination codes. Codes differ from different centers that offer the exam. These codes are the following; Exam 312-50v7, Exam ECO-350 and the Exam 312059v7.

The examination is created to measure 19 specific fields of the knowledge of the candidate. Some of these assessed fields are the preface of Ethical Hacking, detailing, organization hacking, Cryptography, SQL injection, sniffers, and other related topics.

The examination is composed of 19 modules with different subtopics and heading. These modules will be discussed in the following paragraphs to give a candidate an overview of the examination.

An overview to ethic hacking is the first module which is composed of understanding the world of security, terms in hacking, the stages of hacking. It includes the understanding and profiling of the ethical hacker, its scope and boundaries, and the likes.

• Footprinting and investigation is also part of the exam. Under these topics are understanding Footprinting and its role in websites, the need for aggressive intelligence, and other tools for hacking.

• Another subject is the network scanning. This topic covers the candidate’s knowledge on scanning of networks and its susceptibility and other different types of scanning features.

Computer forensics can investigate instances where an individual or organisation believes their systems have been the victim of misuse. Specialists will be able to investigate a variety of misuse methods – including hacking attacks – and extract the necessary evidence in order to act in legal proceedings. We can also provide guidance to help prevent future attacks.

Computer hacking is usually undertaken by career criminals who wish to steal personal information and access sensitive company information, using highly sophisticated and difficult to trace techniques. Identifying this is central to a prosecution, which is why we are happy to act as an expert witness in court. We can often present complex and highly technical issues that go into forming a forensic examination and present these in a manner that all parties can understand.

One of the biggest concerns in internet security is hacking. Hacking could be of different levels of seriousness. Hacking could be just plain annoying and disturbing but it may be very severe to the extent that your finances, security, and even national security are put to risk. Critical as it is, we should make sure that we are doing ways in order to, if not eliminate, minimize the possibility of us being hacked.

A way to minimize attack is by being doubtful of what we see on the internet. Sites and advertisements that have offers that are just too good to be true usually contain viruses, spyware and other malicious software programs that enter your system and make it susceptible to hacking attacks. Hackers would entice us to click on the incredible offers on sites and advertisements so that they could trap us. We should be cautious whenever opening these types of offers on the internet.

What is your definition of hacking? Most people think of the news stories that relate to big companies having embarrassing problems as their data is compromised. But in truth, hacking goes a lot further than this.

It doesn’t always have to be someone you don’t know who hacks into your systems and causes problems for your business. It could equally be someone who works for you that doesn’t have your best interests at heart. This is because the basic meaning of hacking is when someone accesses some or all of your computer systems without permission. And it doesn’t just happen over the internet.

Quite often, many people don’t see how widespread computer hacking can be. Assuming that they are only in danger from internet based attacks means they may not be covered for all risks. Even those companies that do all they can to prevent hacking which occurs online may have unwittingly turned a blind eye to other dangers.

This is why an understanding of what hacking is and what it involves can help you to protect your own business more fully. But what do you do if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the threats posed?