Many people have probably heard the term Black or White Hat Hacker, but there are a few other hat colors too.
The White Hat Hacker, or the good hacker. This person draws attention to security vulnerabilities. From this type of hacker, a profession has emerged, namely the so-called Penetration Testers. They are paid to break into systems and then report their findings to the companies that hired them.
Another case are so-called Bug Bounties, where the company offers a reward if a security-relevant bug is found in their software. Many big companies like Apple and Google run such programs.
If the White Hat Hackers are the good guys, then the Black Hats are the bad guys. These want to make a financial gain through hacking, even if they have to break laws to do so. They often operate in the field of phishing and ransomware attacks.
Among the more skilled Black Hats, trading vulnerabilities is a source of income. Our intelligence agencies are also a welcome customer here.
A Gray Hat is a mix of white and black. So a hacker who is more on the white side. But sometimes goes too far. For example, just sniffing passwords to annoy friends. But such behavior is of course also illegal.
With these hackers, we are talking about people who take justice into their own hands. These are often honorable goals, but are associated with often violating the law.
An example from Heise. A German web developer found a vulnerability in a ransomware and modified it so that decrypting the victim’s computer became easier. Unfortunately, he also accessed other computers in the process and thus committed a crime himself.
These are hackers who choose their victims out of personal revenge.
These are hackers who want to learn and constantly improve themselves. The gain of insight is what matters most.
