When you think of a hacker, you’ll likely imagine a person in a dark room illegally breaking into a computer server to steal information or install malicious software. It’s an image that’s been sculpted by film and TV, inspired by real-world criminal cases.

However, not only is the picture largely exaggerated by media, but it also does a huge disservice to those in the community who work to help defend against such attacks.

National security agencies are a big recruiter of those with hacking talents, keen to exploit the same skills that are often being used against them by nation-state hackers or criminal groups. Those that secure these highly sought after security jobs are known as white hat hackers.

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Recruitment paths vary between countries. For example, both the UK and the Netherlands operate a scheme that encourages coding-savvy 12-19-year-olds to take up ethical hacking challenges, with the hope of pushing them towards white hacker roles and away from criminal enterprise.