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A security hacker or security researcher is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. [1] Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, [2] challenge, recreation, [3] or evaluation of a system weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers.
An example of a physical security measure: a metal lock on the back of a personal computer to prevent hardware tampering. Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is the protection of computer software, systems and networks from threats that can lead to unauthorized information disclosure, theft or damage to hardware, software, or data ...
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker – someone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break into computer systems and access data which would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
A grey hat (greyhat or gray hat) is a computer hacker or computer security expert who may sometimes violate laws or typical ethical standards, but usually does not have the malicious intent typical of a black hat hacker. The term came into use in the late 1990s, and was derived from the concepts of "white hat" and "black hat" hackers. [1]
In computer security, a threat is a potential negative action or event enabled by a vulnerability that results in an unwanted impact to a computer system or application.. A threat can be either a negative "intentional" event (i.e. hacking: an individual cracker or a criminal organization) or an "accidental" negative event (e.g. the possibility of a computer malfunctioning, or the possibility ...
A remote exploit works over a network and exploits the security vulnerability without any prior access to the vulnerable system. A local exploit requires prior access or physical access to the vulnerable system, and usually increases the privileges of the person running the exploit past those granted by the system administrator.
A penetration test, colloquially known as a pentest, is an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system; [1] this is not to be confused with a vulnerability assessment. [2]
In cryptanalysis and computer security, a dictionary attack is an attack using a restricted subset of a keyspace to defeat a cipher or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase, sometimes trying thousands or millions of likely possibilities [1] often obtained from lists of past security breaches.