DIFFERENCES: BLACK, WHITE, GREY, AND RED HACKER? - ULTIMATE BEGINNER HANDBOOK TO COMPUTER HACKING ESSENTIALS: LEARN ETHICAL HACKING, PENETRATION TESTING AND BASIC SECURITY: 50+ FREE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU MASTER THE ART OF HACKING (2015)

ULTIMATE BEGINNER HANDBOOK TO COMPUTER HACKING ESSENTIALS: LEARN ETHICAL HACKING, PENETRATION TESTING AND BASIC SECURITY: 50+ FREE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU MASTER THE ART OF HACKING (2015)

DIFFERENCES: BLACK, WHITE, GREY, AND RED HACKER?

There are several types of hackers in the world and they all have reasons of why they chose to do it like they do. We will put these in a chronological order from when they were first coined to the final color of the Hat Hacker family. The reason why they are given a color is to help people identify which hackers are good and which hackers are bad, and, just like in the world, not everyone is strictly good or bad. The “Hat Hacker” part refers to an old style of changing identity in theatres, which was simply to put on a different hat and this let the audience know that you were in a different character.

BLACK HAT HACKER : BAD GUY

A black hat hacker is a literal cyber bad person that only wants to make as much trouble as possible just because they can. These hackers normally do this for egotistical reasons and are usually only show themselves where a new security system has come out, and these individuals feel challenged. While they are the “classical bad guy,” they do have their benefits for existing. Without Black Hat Hackers, there would be no need for all of the other hackers to exist, or security for that reason, and they are actually the reason why jobs are generated for Ethical Hackers.

WHITE HAT HACKER: GOOD GUY

Just because they are a White Hat Hacker, does not mean they are an Ethical Hacker. A White Hat Hacker only hacks when they feel like they need to, but strictly go out of their way to make sure that they do not hurt anyone in the process. This type of hacker is generally associated with the individuals who provide personalized bug fixers for software and generally try to improve upon software issues that the company seems to be ignoring. You can usually find them on forums, helping people solve issues with their code and just being the good guy for the general public. They don’t do anything for profit, they do it because they feel that it is need, and they are almost always happy to help out someone they don’t even know to help improve that person’s life.

GREY HAT HACKER: THE I “DO IT FOR FUN” GUY

The Grey Hat Hacker is usually the person who hacks video games and tests their skills against varying levels of security because they find it fun. These hackers are problematic because they don’t often care whether they harm someone, but they also don’t really even think about whether they are hurting someone or not. This is similar to a person who wants to hack into a credit card company because they feel like it would be an interesting adventure.

RED HAT HACKER: THE “I DO IT FOR LEGAL MONEY” GUY

Red Hat Hackers are usually a mix on Ethical and Un-Ethical Hackers. The reason why they are called Red Hat Hackers is for the terminology of “Red Tape.” That is right, Red Hat Hackers are usually on the level of hacking government institutions, information hubs, and generally anything that falls underneath the category of sensitive information. The FBI and CIA hold a list of the world’s Red Hat Hackers to keep track of what they do, where they go, and what jobs they are working on as a preventative measure against being hacked themselves. A really big example of this is when the group Anonymous and LulzSec managed to Hack the CIA and cause them a lot of issues for, not only their employees, but also the security companies that place their trust in the CIA.

NEOPHYTE: THE NOOB

A Neophyte is literally a “New Convert,” which is to say that this is a person who is new to the hacking world and the term came about for hackers to represent the fact that being hacker is similar to a religious practice.