We have all heard of hackers before, but did you know there are different types? In fact, there are 7 types of hackers broadly referred to in the world of cybersecurity. It seems like there is a major breach or cyberattack taking place all the time, and with the world relying more and more on the internet everyday it is important to understand what threats there are. Most people think hackers are bad, but there are good ones too. While their means might not be good, their intentions are. Some hackers want to steal sensitive information or funds, while others actually assist a company in identifying their security flaws. Below is a list of 7 types of hackers with their intentions and what they do.
White Hat Hacker
White hat hackers, also known as ethical hackers, use their skills for good. These hackers work for a company or as a contractor and are responsible for finding security flaws within an organization by trying to hack into them. They are paid for their services and have permission from the organization, making their work completely legal. White hat hackers perform tasks such as penetration testing and vulnerability scanning, and then report their findings to the organization so improvements can be made.
Black Hat Hacker
Black hat hackers are the bad guys as they write malicious code and try to gain access into a system illegally. Their intentions range from personal or financial gain or can be an act of cyber espionage. They can place malware into a system and steal sensitive files, or encrypt an organizations entire network demanding ransomware payment in order to decrypt everything. Sometimes a black hat hacker will destroy data completely if they believe there is a need or reason for it.
Gray Hat Hacker
Gray hat hackers are a mix between white hat and black hat hackers. They typically go around trying to hack into systems, but do not do anything malicious. They will report their findings to the organization and sometimes request a small fee to fix the issue. While their intentions are good, their methods are bad. They do not actually exploit and vulnerabilities, but they have no prior permission making their actions illegal.
While people frown upon gray hat hackers, they are not always bad. Some organizations do not feel the need to have a penetration test done or cannot afford it, so having gray hat hackers in place is sometimes a good thing. They do have malicious intentions, but informing an organization of a high risk security flaw they never would have found ensures the organization stays safe from an attack.
Red Hat Hacker
Red hats are known as the vigilantes of the cybersecurity field. They usually have the same if not more skills than black hat hackers, and actively go after black hat hackers. They can work individually or in groups, but they target and take down other black hat hackers and try to destroy attacks they may have in progress or resources the black hat hackers have. Red hat hackers may send malware to a black hat hacker completely disrupting their operations and locking them out of their own system. They deal with the bad guys on their own rather than bringing in law enforcement, which is why they are known as the vigilantes.
Many of us have heard of the group Anonymous, and some members fall into this category. Red hat hackers fight against hacks they disagree with and consider themselves ethical. Some red hat hackers attack organizations, governments, and institutions they think are up to no good and expose that information.
Green Hat Hacker
Green hat hackers are the ones who are still learning. Their intention is to grow their skills and learn from other hackers so they have the skills needed to become a full-fledged hacker. Their intentions can vary and they can either go down a good or bad path, but right now they are simply focused on improving their skills.
Blue Hat Hacker
Blue hat hackers do not hack to learn, but hack to gain popularity. They use hacking as a weapon and try to settle the score with adversaries. They might not be the most skilled, but their intentions can be dangerous as all they will focus on a single target and do whatever it takes.
Script Kiddie
Script kiddies is a well known term as these guys can be dangerous. They do not have experienced knowledge of hacking but know the basics. They will use scripts and sources from other hackers to try and gain access into a system, sometimes without knowing what the effect will be if the attack is successful. Script kiddies usually just want to gain attention and recognition for being able to hack a network but lack the in depth understanding of how it actually worked.