What is a black hat hacker?
A black hat hacker is a computer hacker who engages in illegal or malicious activities, such as breaking into computer systems, stealing sensitive data, or causing damage to networks.
A black hat is a computer hacker who violates laws or typical ethical standards for nefarious purposes, such as cybercrime, cyberwarfare or malice. The term originates from 1950s westerns, when bad guys typically wore black hats and good guys white hats. A black hat is contrasted with a white hat
White hat
An ethical security hacker is referred to as a white hat or white-hat hacker. The term "ethical hacking" is meant to mean more than just penetration testing. White hat hackers aim to discover any flaws in the current system with the owner's permission. While a black hat will illegally exploit a vulnerability or instruct others on how to do so, a white hat hacker will only exploit it with permission and will not reveal its existence until it has been fixed. Teams known as "sneakers and/or hacker clubs," "red teams," or "tiger teams" are also common among white-hat hackers.[citation needed]
Grey hat
A grey hat is a hacker who typically does not have malicious intent but often violate laws or common ethical standards. A vulnerability will not be illegally exploited by a grey hat, nor will it instruct others on how to do so; however, the grey hat may trade this information for personal gain.[12] A special group of gray hats are hacktivists, who hack to promote social change.[2]
The ideas of "white hat" and "black hat" hackers led to the use of the term "gray hat" at the end of the 1990s.
Another difference between these types of hackers is how they find vulnerabilities. The black hat will break into any system or network in order to uncover sensitive information for personal gain, whereas the white hat does so at the request of their employer or with explicit permission to determine how secure it is against hackers. The grey hat typically possesses the white hat's skills and intentions, and the black hat's disregard for permission or laws.[3]
See also;
- BlueHat
- Cybercrime
- Cyberwarfare