TYPES OF HACKER
TYPES OF HACKER
Types of Hackers around the Globe White, black, and grey refer to the relationship between the hacker and the attacking systems.
‘Black Hat’ Hackers
The term “black hat” originated from Western movies, where the bad guys wore black hats, and the good guys wore white hats.
A black-hat hacker is an individual who attempts to gain unauthorised entry into a system or network to exploit them for malicious reasons. They try to inflict damage by compromising security systems, altering functions of websites and networks, or shutting down systems. They often do so to steal or gain access to passwords, financial information, and other personal data. The black-hat hacker does not have any permission or authority to compromise their targets.
‘White Hat’ Hackers
On the other hand, white-hat hackers are deemed to be the good guys, working with organisations to strengthen the security of a system. A white hat has permission to engage the targets and compromise them within the prescribed rules of engagement.
White-hat hackers are often referred to as ethical hackers. This individual specialises in ethical hacking tools, techniques, and methodologies to secure an organisation’s information systems.
Unlike black-hat hackers, ethical hackers exploit security networks and look for backdoor when they are legally permitted to do so. White-hat hackers always disclose every vulnerability they find in the company’s security system to be fixed before they are being exploited by malicious actors.
Some Fortune 50 companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google also use white-hat hackers.
‘Grey Hat’ Hackers
Grey hats exploit networks and computer systems in the way that black hats do without any malicious intent, disclosing all loopholes and vulnerabilities to law enforcement agencies or intelligence agencies.
Usually, grey-hat hackers surf the net and hack into computer systems to notify the administrator or the owner that their system/network contains several vulnerabilities that must be fixed immediately. Grey hats may also extort the hacked, offering to correct the defect for a nominal fee.
