Are all hackers cyber criminals?

Hacker is an individual who uses his or her skills to achieve unauthorized access to systems or networks to commit crimes. The intent of the burglary determines the classification of those attackers as white, grey, or black hats.

1) White hat attackers

(also known as ethical hackers) burgled networks or PC systems to get weaknesses to boost the protection of those systems. The owners of the system offer permission to perform the burglary, and they receive the results of the take a look at. White hat hackers?perform penetration testing, test in-place?security?systems, and perform vulnerability assessments for companies. Simply, these?hackers are assigned the task of identifying security holes and filling those?gaps to prevent further damage.

But what are their motivations? White hat hackers hack to:

• Find and fix vulnerabilities in the system before black hat hackers exploit them.
• Develop tools that can detect cyberattacks and mitigate or block them.
• Strengthen the overall security posture of the software and hardware components.
• Build security software like antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, honeypots, firewalls, etc.

2) Black Hat Hackers

Their main motivation for these hackers?is usually for personal or financial gain, but they can also be involved in?cyber?spying, protest, or perhaps are just addicted to the thrill of wreaking?havoc into people’s lives. black hat hackers usually have extensive knowledge about breaking into?computer networks and bypassing security protocols.

Some of these hackers might also be?trained by criminal organizations for larger?crime?targets, such as hijacking a banking institution, government systems, or any?other companies that could be used as profit-gaining tools of make money, they are ready to do all illegal activities such as:

• Sending?phishing emails?and?SMS messages.
• Writing, distributing, and selling?malware?like viruses, worms,?trojan horses, etc.
• Deploying?cyber-attacks?like?distributed denial of service?(DDoS) to slow down or crash the websites.
• Earning money for doing political and corporate espionage.
• Finding and exploiting leaky databases and software vulnerabilities.
• Selling financial and personally identifiable information on the Dark Web.
• Executing financial fraud and identity theft-related crimes.

3) Grey Hat Hackers

Grey hat hackers are somewhere in between both?black and white hat hackers, who often will look for?vulnerabilities?in?a system without the owner’s permission or knowledge, but not essentially with?evil intentions. If issues are found, they will report them to the owner,?sometimes requesting a small fee to fix the problem. If the owner does not?respond or comply, the hackers will sometimes post the newly found exploit online for?the world to see. However, it is still not legal to perform these types of?hacking because the hacker did not receive permission from the owner before attacking?the system.

?Grey hat hackers sometimes charge a fee to:

• Fix bugs or vulnerabilities,
• Strengthen the organization’s security defenses, or
• Provide recommendations, solutions, or tools to patch vulnerabilities.

4) Red Hat Hacker

Much like white hat hackers, red hat hackers also want to save the world from evil hackers. But they choose extreme and sometimes illegal routes to achieve their goals.

Red hat hackers are like the pseudo-Robin Hood of the cybersecurity field — they take the wrong path to do the right thing. When they find a black hat hacker, they deploy dangerous cyber-attacks against them.

Red hat hackers use all types of tactics to do this, including:

• Infecting the bad hackers’ systems with malware,
• Launching DDoS attacks,
• Using tools to gain remote access to the hacker’s computer to demolish it.

In short, red hats are the types of hackers who often choose to take aggressive steps to stop black hat hackers. They’re known to launch full-scale attacks to bring down the bad guys’ servers and destroy their resources.

5) Green Hat Hacker

These are the “newbies” in the world of hacking. Green hat hackers are not aware of the security mechanism and the inner workings of the web, but they are keen learners and determined (and even desperate) to elevate their position in the hacker community. Although their intention is not necessarily to cause harm, they may do so while “playing” with various malware and attack techniques.

As a result, green hat hackers can also be harmful because they often are not aware of the consequences of their actions — or, worst, how to fix them.

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