Scotland sees rise in take-up of ethical hacking training

Ethical hacking is becoming a popular option for those who want digital careers, according to new figures.

More students in Scotland are enrolling in university courses designed to start them on a career path in ethical hacking, it has been revealed.

The Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) runs an Ethical Hacking and Digital Forensic degree at Abertay University, with the 'Curious Frank' subdivision particularly aimed at supporting business resilience in cyber issues.

Since 2018, the Curious Frank team has grown by 30 per cent to 23, with more women than ever getting involved too.

Ethical hacking is sometimes referred to as white hat hacking or penetration testing and is where companies employ cyber specialists to deliberately hack into their systems.

The hope is that these experts can find flaws before they are exploited by hackers with more malicious intent, with businesses including Google, Microsoft and Uber all using ethical hackers.

SBRC's Eamonn Keane said: "With technology advancing and more and more criminal activities taking place online, we need a growing multiplicity of cyber-associated roles to include ethical hackers who are trained to identify and reduce cyber crime."