Many of the students undertaking IT programs in our universities possess the fundamental skills to carry out hacking in their future professional careers in the organizations in which they will be employed through the knowledge they have acquired as part of their training. Learning about networking, programming, coupled with hardware knowledge and exposure to various operating systems such as Unix, Linux, and Windows equips the average IT student with the skills and knowledge to infiltrate and manipulate systems, in essence making them hackers in the making. Accordingly, a black-hat hacker is a hacker who either ignores or intentionally defies legal or regulatory statutes with presumably little interest in ethical frameworks (Pike, 2013). Conversely, a white-hat hacker is defined as a hacker who is committed to full compliance with legal and regulatory statutes as well as published ethical frameworks that apply to the task at hand (Pike, 2013). One of the greatest challenges posed to business through recruitment of IT professionals is the risk of cybersecurity breaches to organizational systems as a result of the knowledge they possess. Many business organizations, as a result, have fallen victim to cyber-attacks. It was thus the focus of this research to explore why by training IT students in our University?s, we are producing an increasing number of future hackers within Africa Nazarene University. The purpose of this study was to explore if ANU is a breeding ground for hackers of the future. The study explored if perceptions held of ethical hacking serve as deterrents to hacking through training achieved as IT students at ANU through the objectives of evaluating how the GoK codes of conduct and RoK ICT policy affect IT students, how ethical practices training has impacted IT students, when have the IT student?s encountered ANU institutional policies, and what is the consequent level of awareness of ethical hacking. At its core was the theory that today?s IT students are tomorrow?s hackers with the target population being IT students undertaking undergraduate BCS, BBIT programs and graduate MIT studies at ANU. A sample size of 105 respondents, which was drawn using purposive sampling technique was used that targeted students who are part of the IT programs under study. Quantitative data was obtained from the respondents as collected using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS through descriptive analysis that yielded correlations between the objectives under study as well as frequencies and percentages of the results of data. The results were presented in form of correlation tables, bar graphs, pie charts and a written report that detailed analysis of findings as well as evaluated the insights of the data analyzed. The study found that 61.9% respondents taking IT programs at ANU have no knowledge of the GoK code of conduct with 61.7% among the BBIT group indicating that they have not undergone hacking training. 95.8% indicated that coupled with having undergone hacking training they practice prudent online internet conduct through their ANU user accounts as well as 90.5% of the total respondents across all programs indicating that hacking sensitization would be an important part of their training. The study was able to conclude that ANU IT student?s curricula should be guided by the government master plan on the role out and implementation of ICT within Kenya, legal document added to exposure to the field, testing of skills, collaborations on projects as well as sharing of knowledge in line with sensitization on the latest trends should form part and parcel of the core training. Recommendations from the study include the establishment of an IT training policy, hacking and ethics training, and creation of hacking awareness programs on white hat and black hat hacking. The study sought to develop awareness among Africa Nazarene University IT students on ethical hacking and is intended to benefit ANU in particular as it will enable the institution to determine if the IT training programs have any shortfalls that may exist.

Hacking; Black Hat Hacker; White Hat Hacker; GoK Laws; RoK ICT policy; Ethical Hacking Training; ANU Institutional Policies; Awareness;