9 Types of Hackers You Should Know About

Since the beginning of computers, hacking tools and techniques were known to go hand in hand as technology advanced. With the first ever antivirus being created at around the same time that computers became a thing in the late 1980s, there has always been an awareness of this.

Today, technology has advanced to the point where we rely on our smart devices for our daily endeavours, from speaking to friends, to purchasing our daily coffee and using our phones for our daily travel. We share an inconceivable amount of personal data with our devices everyday and almost everyone around us in today's world is doing the same. According to Forbes, there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace.

Taking this into account, it makes sense that viruses and malware have too advanced. With the scale and depth of information stored on them increasing at such a rate, hackers are now attempting to exploit our devices on a daily basis and with higher skill sets.

However, not all hackers are baddies. Despite the typically negative stereotype of hackers, there are factors such as their motives and their legal basis which categorise them into good and evil.

To give you an idea of hackers today, here are 9 types of hackers that you should know ...

1. White hat hacker

A white hat hacker is an ethical hacker who uses his/her skills to infiltrate your security system in a hypothetical context to uncover vulnerabilities. In other words, the white hat hacker mimics the attack techniques that a malicious actor would use in a real attack.

White hat hackers will only carry out exploits with permission from their target company and will do so within legal boundaries. The hacker will also be required to disclose all of their findings to the company who the system belongs to. Typically they will be paid for uncovering vulnerabilities in the target’s system which is what drives their motive.

2. Black hat hacker

Black hat hackers are cyber criminals who try to infiltrate a system through a range of cyber attacks and malware, often with a motive of personal gain. They may attempt to use ransomware or spyware to get the sensitive data that they aim to steal, or attempt to gain this by tricking their target with a phishing scam.?

These criminal hackers can have a wide range of targets, from the general public to SME’s and large organisations.

3. Grey hat hacker

As the name suggests, the grey hat hacker is the grey area between the white and black hat hackers. This grey area lies in the hackers intentions, although they may be acting without permission or under a lawful basis, they don’t have malicious intent.?

To give an example of a grey hat hacker, they may often act like a white hat hacker on a target company and then present the vulnerabilities that they have found to the company. Often this is done in the hopes that they will be rewarded or asked to fix the vulnerability. However, as the hacker has infiltrated the target's system without pre-consent, their activity is illegal and there is the risk that should the company not work with the hacker to fix the vulnerability, they could exploit or share their findings for other hackers to take advantage of.?

In most cases, companies seek to punish the grey hat hacker for their illegal infiltration of their security without permission.?

4. Script kiddies

Script kiddies are beginners in the hacking world and may be either carrying out basic cyber attacks such as DoS or DDoS to simply cause disruption to their target, or they may be aspiring to be advanced hackers and are looking to improve their hacking skills.?

These novice hackers may be part of online hacking communities, asking for advice to improve their skills from fellow hackers.?

5. Blue hat hackers?

These hackers are script kiddies but with no desire for financial gain or to improve their skills, but instead are revenge seekers. This revenge may be against a person, employer, institution or government.

Their tactics may include simple attacks such as overloading an institution's website with a DoS attack, or they may hack into a person’s social media profiles to send inappropriate messages from their target’s account.

There is however an alternate meaning for a blue hat hacker where they are known as security professionals working outside of an organisation. Some blue hats for example are known as blue hat Microsoft hackers, whereby the tech giant organises invite-only conferences for these security professionals to test its Windows programmes.?

6. Red hat hackers?

These hackers generally have intentions for the greater public, in that their agenda is to take down black hat hackers. The red hat hacker will do this with a series of launched cyber attacks and malware at the hacker to take down the hacker’s entire system. Despite their good intentions, red hat hackers will often take illegal routes to disable the hacker.

7. State nation sponsored hackers?

State-nation-sponsored attackers tend to be highly sophisticated. This is due to their endless budget and extremely advanced tools at their disposal. These individuals are employed by a state or nation's government to snoop in and penetrate through full security to gain confidential information from or disrupt other governments, organisations or individuals. They may be part of a ‘cyber army’ for companies aligned to the aims of the government and have a ‘licence to hack’ their target overseas.?

8. Hacktivist?

Inspired by the term ‘Activism’, hacktivism uses the act of hacking for social, political or religiously driven agendas. These hacktivists are often part of an anonymous hacking group such as the well known hacktivist group ironically named ‘Anonymous’. They may commit acts such as defacing an organisation’s website or leaking an organisation’s information to the public. The main goal of their hacks are usually to make a point and send a message through their activities.?

9. Elite hackers

The most skilled type of hacker and are masters of both technology and hacking. They have expert skills to achieve their goals such as breaking into information systems or retrieving sensitive information. They will often have years of experience behind them whether that be in white hat or black hat hacking.?

Pen Testing with Airnow Cybersecurity

At Airnow Cybersecurity we have our own 'white hat hackers' ready to test your organisation for vulnerabilities. To book your pen test today, email us at [email protected]?.