Understanding Hackers’ Work: An Empirical Study of Offensive Security Practitioners
Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito
Abstract
Offensive security-tests are commonly employed to pro-actively discover potential vulnerabilities. They are performed by specialists, also known as penetration-testers or white-hat hackers. The chronic lack of available white-hat hackers prevents sufficient security test coverage of software. Research into automation tries to alleviate this problem by improving the efficiency of security testing. To achieve this, researchers and tool builders need a solid understanding of how hackers work, their assumptions, and pain points.
Topics & Concepts
HackerOffensiveComputer securityComputer scienceWork (physics)AutomationThematic analysisHoneypotInternet privacyQualitative researchEngineeringOperations researchSociologySocial scienceMechanical engineeringInformation and Cyber SecuritySoftware Engineering ResearchAdvanced Malware Detection Techniques