You see, ‘White Hat hackers’ are just one type of hacker out
there and they are the only ones who aren’t dangerous to your business. To
illustrate, here’s what each type of hacker ‘Hat’ does:
Script
Kiddie
Script Kiddies don’t really care about hacking into systems
and stealing things. They simply copy code and use it for a virus, SQLi or
something else. Script Kiddies will never hack for themselves, they will just
download some overused software (such as LOIC or Metasploit) and watch a
YouTube video on how to use it. A very common Script Kiddie attack would be a
DOS (Denial of Service) or DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service), where they
flood an IP with so much useless information that it collapses, preventing
other people from using it.
White Hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers, and
they’re the good guys of the hacker world. They help you remove viruses,
perform pen tests and generally help people understand where their
vulnerabilities are and fix them. Most White Hat hackers will hold some form of
computer or security related qualification, and often pursue careers in hacking
and cyber security. They love the challenge of finding the holes but have no
interest in doing anything with them. There are even a number of qualifications
specifically for them – Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), CREST
Certified Infrastructure Tester and CREST Certified Application Security
Tester.
Black
Hat
Black Hat hackers, or ‘crackers’ are the types of people you
often hear about on the news and from businesses trying to sell cyber services.
They find banks and big companies with weak security systems and steal credit
card information, confidential data or money. Their methods are varied but
actually fairly basic most of the time.
Grey
Hat
As with everything in this world, nothing is just black and
white. Grey Hat hackers don’t steal information or money like Black Hat hackers
(though they may sometimes deface a website for fun), nor do they help people
out like white hack hackers. Instead, they spend most of their time just
playing around with systems, without doing anything harmful. This type of
hacker actually makes up most of the hacking community, even though Black hat
hackers garner most of the media’s attention.
Green Hat
Green Hat hackers are the babies of the hacker world. They
are new to the game and mainly use script, like Script Kiddies, but they have
aspirations of becoming full blown hackers. They are often found asking
questions of fellow hackers and listening with childlike curiosity.
Red Hat
Red Hat hackers are the vigilantes of the hacker world.
They’re like white hats in the sense that they put a stop to Black hat attacks,
but they are downright scary in how they do it. Instead of reporting the
malicious hacker they find lurking inside a business, they shut them down by
uploading viruses, DoSing and accessing their computer to destroy it form the
inside out. Red hats use many different aggressive methods to force the cracker
out and potentially even kill their computer. The good news is, businesses
don’t need to worry about these.
Blue
Hat
And finally, we have the Blue Hat hackers. If a Script
Kiddie ever took revenge, he would become a Blue Hat Hacker. Blue Hat hackers
will seek vengeance on anyone who has made them angry. Most Blue Hat hackers
are fairly new to the hacking world, but unlike green hats they have no desire
to learn.
So hopefully that clears a few things up, and gives you a
bit of an insight into the world of hacking in all of its colour. At HBServices, our job to train students as White Hat hackers is to keep all of the
other hackers out of your business by identifying weaknesses and shoring them
up, protecting you, your clients and your data. For more information or to
enquire about ethical hacking course, get in touch with us today.
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