The term ethical hacking refers to the co-ordinate and comprehensive check of
security on a network and on systems inside it, in order to assess the actual risk level
data is exposed to, and to propose possible corrective actions aimed at raising the security level.
An ethical hacker is a computer security professional, a researcher constantly engaged in enhancing and widening his/her own skills in several areas.
A question may arise about the term "ethical" related to this kind of activity.

'Ethical' means that tools and techniques used are typically the same as those chosen by attackers, but they are applied wisely, without any risk for data integrity, service continuity and so forth.
'Ethical' also means that privacy is guaranteed to accessed information, which is often particularly sensitive and valuable.
Finally, 'ethical' means suggestions are given in order to enhance the security level relating to the exposures found.
Yet, the role of ethics may still not be perfectly clear. If you think of a lawyer, journalist, physician, teacher, you'll immediately understand what ethics means here. Let's try to read what Steven Levy says about hackers: "the term hacker can signify the free-wheeling intellectual exploration of the highest and deepest potential of computer systems. Hacking can describe the determination to make access to computers and information as free and open as possible. Hacking can involve the heartfelt conviction that beauty can be found in computers, that the fine aesthetic in a perfect program can liberate the mind and spirit".

Esthetics, beauty, intellectual exploration.
These are the words that embraces ethics and link it to hacking.
An ethical hacker loves and respects the systems, he/she wishes to know them deeply in order to make them better. This is why he/she is said to be "ethical": He/she doesn't get any pleasure from defacement, from automatic use of programs written by other people without any kind of reflection activity, from intruding a system in order to damage it or commit crimes. He/she is curious, as any other researcher, and offers his/her mastery to others. There is much more to be said about this, but we believe people with a passion in their life may understand these words without further comments.

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