All about Hackers

What do hackers do?

Hackers, sometimes known as digital safecrackers, utilize their computer expertise to breach secure digital environments, including cloud infrastructure, servers, networks, personal devices, and online accounts. Hackers typically have malevolent intentions since they employ unconventional techniques to breach computer systems, yet some of them do good deeds.

A common goal of computer hackers is to either steal money, obtain confidential data, or hold files hostage for ransom. Others investigate and test the security of digital systems for pay while working beyond the rules. Hackers that operate in the murky space between legitimate and illicit hacking also exist.

White Hat Hackers

Legal hacking is what white hat hackers do to increase users' digital security. They are compensated for breaking into digital systems in order to detect possible security flaws and reporting back to their clients. By using white hat hacking, businesses and organizations can fix security flaws before malevolent hackers can take advantage of them.

For example, to make sure the personal data of its clients is safe, an insurance company can pay a white hat hacker to mimic yearly attacks. Consent is the foundation of white hat hacking; clients order services knowing that their systems may be attempted to be compromised.

Black Hat Hackers

Cybercriminals known as "black hat hackers" plan frauds and take advantage of weaknesses with the intention of causing harm. Black hat hackers typically want to become wealthy. They use a variety of techniques to accomplish this, but the most common ones include outright theft of funds, password cracking to obtain data that may be sold on the dark web, or holding private information ransom.

The most dangerous hackers are known as "black hats," and they usually go to considerable measures to conceal their identities. You'll seldom find a hacker who will engage in open communication with you. Occasionally, they form hacker gangs to carry out massive hacks.

Since businesses store a lot of our personal data, they stand to lose the most from hacking. However, people can also be hacked. Black hat hackers frequently use device-specific hacking, such as router and phone hacking, to get access to bigger systems. Hackers also frequently target email accounts.

For this reason, it's critical that companies carry out frequent cybersecurity testing.

Gray Hat Hackers

In the murky ethical hacking space between white and black, there are gray hats. These hackers don't employ weaknesses to their advantage; instead, they breach systems without the permission of their targets. Rather, they notify the hacked parties to assist them in strengthening their security.

However, these details aren't always given away by gray hat hackers. Although they alert businesses to hacking attempts, gray hats occasionally demand payment in exchange for the information. In these situations, the victims who wish to learn about the weaknesses in their system have to pay. However, gray hat hackers won't try to take revenge and do damage if they don't pay.

Although it's not nearly as awful as black hat hacking, gray hat hacking is nevertheless unethical.

Red Hat Hackers

In the hacking community, red hat hackers consider themselves to be the "superheroes." Usually, they go after black hat hackers in an effort to thwart or counterattack them. Red hat hackers employ identical methods to compromise black hat rings or people, despite their steadfast opposition to black hats. They might initiate large-scale assaults to take down black hat servers or pilfer their assets and give them back to the offended parties.

Blue Hat Hackers

Hackers who work for a company and are employed by them are known as "blue hat" hackers. Their responsibility is to guard against intrusions and maintain the organization's cybersecurity. Once they work for a group or corporation, blue hats are typically not referred to as "hackers."

Blue hats frequently collaborate with others and might not be in charge of carrying out hacks alone. Typically, they are employed by large corporations' IT departments. Or they might work for cybersecurity companies that provide their clients white hat hacking services.

Green Hat Hackers and Script kiddies

Although these terms are frequently used synonymously, they have different meanings. Both terms allude to unskilled hackers; however, whereas script kiddies nearly invariably have malevolent intentions and employ pre-existing malware and scripts written by other hackers to carry out their attacks, green hat hackers may hope to become white or black hats.

Since script kiddies lack the technical know-how to carry out more complex attacks, they may also rely on social engineering. This implies that they can send phony emails and assume other identities in an effort to persuade their targets to divulge private information.

Green hat hackers, on the other hand, aim to acquire the technological know-how necessary to turn into white or blue hat hackers in the future. Some may eventually choose to follow the black hat road because they don't have a definite motivation at this point.

Hacktivists

Hacktivists are those who breach systems in an effort to retaliate against perceived injustices in politics or society. Hacktivists frequently attempt to reveal corporate or governmental wrongdoing by breaching secure networks and revealing confidential data.

The most well-known hacktivist group is Anonymous, which has targeted numerous institutions to protest perceived injustice, including the US Federal Reserve, the Church of Scientology, and governments all around the world.

Even if they think their actions are serving the greater good, those who engage in hacktivism nearly always mean to hurt their victims' reputations or in some other way.

State/nation-sponsored hackers

Governments employ hackers with state sponsorship. While some hackers utilize white hat techniques to strengthen national cybersecurity, others employ black hat strategies to cause harm to other nations.

State-sponsored hacking is frequently an attempt by states to obtain intelligence from other governments through espionage. Governments may launch their own subversive assaults or use the information gleaned from state-sponsored hackers to prepare for or avert impending harm.

Whistleblower or Malicious insider

A whistleblower or malevolent insider is an employee of an organization who chooses to reveal misconduct from within. Whistleblowers already have the security access necessary to reveal sensitive information because they are employees of the targets they hack. While some may act out of retaliation or a desire for money, others may believe it is their obligation to reveal the truth.

Edward Snowden is a well-known example of a whistleblower. He exposed the US government's vast surveillance operations by leaking confidential material from his job at the National Security Agency.