Various Types Of Hackers – Explained

Hacker is a term we all hear once a day but who is a hacker? Well, Wiki says” A hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network”. Many people wants to be a hacker for their personal reasons. Today, however, hacking and hackers are most commonly associated with malicious programming attacks on the Internet and another network and that makes a perfect reason to know about the different types Of Hacker.

Also read: How to Become An Ethical Hacker in 12 Simple Steps

Various Types of Hackers

1. Black Hat Hacker:

A Black Hat Hacker (Also known as Crackers or Dark-Side Hackers) are an individual with extensive computer knowledge whose purpose is to breach or bypass internet security. The general view is that, while hackers build things, crackers break things. They are the bad guys, cyber criminals who have malicious intents. These are the hackers who steal money or valuable data, infect systems with Viruses, Trojans, and Malware etc. These are the ones who gave the world of hacking a bad reputation and it is up to us, the White Hats to bring them down. They use their hacking skills for illegal purposes with unethical goals and sometimes just to watch the world burn.

2.White Hat Hacker:

The term “White Hat Hacker” in Internet slang refers to an ethical computer Hacker, or a Computer Security Expert, who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization’s information systems. White Hats are the good guys who hack for security purposes. Although what they do is pretty much the same as bad guys, but a world of difference arises when it comes to ethics. The main aim of a White Hat Hacker is to improve the security of a system by finding security flaws and fixing it before the bad guys to find and exploit it. They are usually officially employed by organizations and companies to protect their virtual assets from coming to harm. They may work also individually to make the cyberspace more secure, kind of a voluntary worldwide community service.

3. Grey Hat Hacker:

The term “Grey Hat Hacker” in Internet slang, refers to a Computer Hacker or Computer Security Expert whose ethical standards fall somewhere between purely altruistic and purely malicious. The term began to be used in the late 1990s, derived from the concepts of “White Hat” and “Black Hat” Hackers. These are the hackers who may work offensively or defensively, depending on the situation. They belong to the neutral zone. These types of hackers are not inherently malicious with their intentions; they’re just looking to get something out of their discoveries for themselves. Usually, Grey Hat Hackers never exploit the found vulnerabilities. However, this type of hacking is still considered illegal because the hacker did not receive permission from the owner prior to attempting to attack the system.

4. Hacktivist:

Hacktivist (A portmanteau of Hack and Activist) is the subversive use of computers and computer networks to promote a political agenda. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to the free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements. These are the hackers who use their hacking skills for protesting against injustice and attack a target system or websites to popularize a notion or gather attention to a specific case for rectification. They are vigilantes, the dark knights of the Hacking Universe. This is where good intentions collide with the law, for Hacktivists may or may not carry out illegal activities to get their point across to the world. They include outlaws who deliver their own brand of rough justice; they are usually experts confident in their stealth skills so as not to get caught.

5. Script Kiddies:

Script Kiddies (Also known as Skid/Skiddie/Script Bunny), In programming and hacking culture, a script kiddie is an unskilled individual who uses scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks and deface websites. In a word, we can say them noobs. They are the ones who don’t know how a system works but are still able to exploit it with previously available tools, not by walking in the footsteps of actual Hackers but simply copying what they did and using it for malicious purposes. A script kiddie is that one annoying kid in class, who pisses off everyone else. So don’t ever try to be a Skid.

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