NECESSITY OF ETHICAL HACKING IN SAFEGUARDING DIGITAL SYSTEMS AGAINST CYBER-THREATS IN STANDARDIZING COMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This study examined the responsibilities of ethical hacking in safeguarding digital systems against cyber-threats within Nigeria’s communications companies. The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of ethical hacking investigative procedure guided by research hypothesis in exploring the responsibilities of existing cybersecurity measures, the regulatory environment influencing ethical hacking. The study employed a structured statement using designed google form made available online and administered it to one thousand eight hundred and fifty (1,850) respondents across communication companies in Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using the Chi-square (χ²) statistical technique at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed a calculated Chi-square value of 3339.066, which was greater than the critical value of 58.12 at 42 degrees of freedom. The obtained p-value was less than 0.001, indicating that the result was statistically significant. Thus, the findings recognized the potential of ethical hacking to identify vulnerabilities and enhance security. The study therefore established that Ethical Hacking plays significant roles in identifying vulnerabilities, preventing cyber-attacks, protecting sensitive information, improving cybersecurity policies, and enhancing the overall security of digital systems. Conclusively, the study revealed that ethical hacking holds strong promise for fortifying Nigeria’s communication sectors against increment in cyber threats. Therefore, stakeholders in the communication companies should adopt a strategy that promotes ethical hacking initiatives by making sure that the underlisted responsibilities are strictly allowed to be carried out by ethical hackers with explicit permissions for the betterment of outstanding and optimum result to standardize their required services.