White, Grey, and Black Hat Hackers

A Brief History of Hacking

White Hat Hackers

At first, hackers were not harmful, just enthusiasts who wanted to explore technology. "Phone freakers" are an early example of this, which hacked automated phone systems. Now, they can either be useful or harmful.

Their (legal) jobs are to discover and investigate potential breaches into an organizations system. They are hired to do so and are helping out the organization themselves by discovering security holes.

Grey Hat Hackers

Black Hat Hackers

White, Grey, and Black Hat Hackers

Hackers who don't necessarily have malicious intent, but are not legally doing the hacking. They may discover a security hole in an organization without their consent, but are still intending to help them.

Hackers who do have malicious intent, and are doing the hacking illegally and/or immorally. These are typically the hackers that make news headlines, and the ones that leak data from companies that should be secure.

Peter LeCavalier

More Resources

Ethical vs. Unethical Hacking

More details about ethical hacking vs unethical hacking https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/security/ethical-hacking-vs-hacking

Ethical hacking aligns with white hat hackers (could also apply to grey hat hackers), where the hackers don't have malicious intent and are hacking in a morally just way. Unethical hacking aligns with black hat hackers, where the hacker has malicious intent and is not morally justified.

Some notorious hacking examples https://softwarelab.org/blog/hacking-examples/

How all three forms of hacking-related to Cyber Security

All of these forms of hacking closely relate to cybersecurity as a whole. Whether hacking is done ethically or unethically, with consent or without, these hackers are the main ways for organizations to discover and understand potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities. As long as cyber security has been an issue, hacking has been a way to expose vulnerabilities in systems.

How to become a white hat hacker https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10713-white-hat-hacker-career.html