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The white hat is contrasted with the black hat, a malicious hacker; this definitional dichotomy comes from Western films, where heroic and antagonistic cowboys might traditionally wear a white and a black hat, respectively. [6] There is a third kind of hacker known as a grey hat who hacks with good intentions but at times without permission. [7]
A black hat is often referred to as a "cracker". [1] The term originates from 1950s westerns, with "bad guys" (criminals) typically depicted as having worn black hats and "good guys" (heroes) wearing white ones. In the same way, black hat hacking is contrasted with the more ethical white hat approach to hacking.
A grey hat hacker lies between a black hat and a white hat hacker, hacking for ideological reasons. [20] A grey hat hacker may surf the Internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect, for example. They may then offer to correct the defect for a fee. [19]
TeslaTeam is a group of black-hat computer hackers from Serbia established in 2010. TESO was a hacker group originating in Austria that was active primarily from 1998 to 2004. The Unknowns is a group of white-hat hackers that exploited many high-profiled websites and became very active in 2012 when the group was founded and disbanded.
The term came into use in the late 1990s, and was derived from the concepts of "white hat" and "black hat" hackers. [1] When a white hat hacker discovers a vulnerability, they will exploit it only with permission and not divulge its existence until it has been fixed, whereas the black hat will illegally exploit it and/or tell others how to do ...
White hats are usually employed by the target system's owner and are typically paid (sometimes quite well) for their work. Their work is not illegal because it is done with the system owner's consent. Black hat or Cracker Hackers with malicious intentions. They often steal, exploit, and sell data, and are usually motivated by personal gain.
Whether they are malicious or ethical, hackers play a large role in cybersecurity. Within that industry, hackers tend to be grouped under three main categories: the white hat, grey hat, and black hat. [citation needed] White hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers or penetration testers. They work within the boundaries of the law.
The newspaper describes white hat activities as part of a "mischievous but perversely positive 'hacker' tradition". When a National CSS employee revealed the existence of his password cracker , which he had used on customer accounts, the company chastised him not for writing the software but for not disclosing it sooner.