Hacking involves obtaining private information from a target without authorization in order to check their security vulnerabilities. There are three main types of hackers: white hat hackers who perform legal security testing, black hat hackers who illegally steal data, and gray hat hackers who may behave like either. Ethical hacking, also called white hat hacking, involves legally testing a system's defenses to identify weaknesses and help organizations patch them before criminals can exploit them. Becoming an ethical hacker requires training through a certification program to develop skills in areas like networking, cryptography, and web application security testing.