Читать книгу Cybersecurity For Dummies - Joseph Steinberg - Страница 105

Cyberattackers are typically grouped based on their goals:

 Black hat hackers have evil intent and hack in order to steal, manipulate, and/or destroy. When typical people think of a hacker, they are thinking of a black hat hacker.

 White hat hackers are ethical hackers who hack in order to test, repair, and enhance the security of systems and networks. These folks are typically computer security experts who specialize in penetration testing, and who are hired by businesses and governments to find vulnerabilities in their IT systems. Hackers are considered to be white hat hackers only if they have explicit permission to hack from the owner of the systems that they are hacking.

 Grey hat hackers are hackers who do not have the malicious intent of black hat hackers, but who, at least at times, act unethically or otherwise violate anti-hacking laws. Hackers who attempt to find vulnerabilities in a system without the permission of the system’s owner and who report their findings to the owner without inflicting any damage to any systems that they scan are acting as grey hat hackers. Grey hat hackers sometimes act as such to make money. For example, when they report vulnerabilities to system owners, they may offer to fix the problems if the owner pays them some consulting fees. Some of the hackers who many people consider to be black hat hackers are actually grey hats.

 Green hat hackers are novices who seek to become experts. Where green hats fall within the white-grey-black spectrum may evolve over time, as does their level of experience.

 Blue hat hackers are paid to test software for exploitable bugs before the software is released into the market.

For the purposes of this book, black and gray hat hackers are the hackers that should primarily concern you as you seek to cyberprotect yourself and your loved ones.