Blue hat hackers, also known as ethical hackers or good hackers, are the antithesis of black hats. They use their skills for good rather than malicious purposes and are often employed by businesses or governments to uncover potential security vulnerabilities in computer systems and networks.
Blue Hat Hackers (Blue Teams)
These hackers typically have a background in cybersecurity and are invited by organizations to test their systems for vulnerabilities before a product launch or major update.
Purple Hat Hacking
Last on this list is the purple hat hacker, who practices their hacking skills on their PCs. This can mean buying a PC or using an old one to hack another one they own to see how effective their techniques are.
Gray hat hackers enact a blend of both black hat and white hat activities. Gray hat hackers often look for vulnerabilities in a system without the owner's permission or knowledge. If issues are found, they report them to the owner, sometimes requesting a small fee to fix the problem.
Green hat hackers: Green hat hackers are “green” in the sense that they're inexperienced and may lack the technical skills of more experienced hackers. Green hats may rely on phishing and other social engineering techniques to bypass security systems.
They often have malicious intent and attempt to hack or steal Facebook, Twitter or other social media accounts. These actions are illegal. Yellow hat hackers are usually motivated by gaining access to personal data or getting revenge on a person or organization.
Gray hat hacker definition
Gray hat hackers enact a blend of both black hat and white hat activities. Gray hat hackers often look for vulnerabilities in a system without the owner's permission or knowledge. If issues are found, they report them to the owner, sometimes requesting a small fee to fix the problem.
A short definition of Red Hat Hacker
A red hat hacker is a hacker who takes aggressive steps to stop black hat hackers. While red hat hackers are not inherently evil, they do everything they can to stop the bad guys, including taking matters into their own hands.
Yellow hat hackers (also known as social media hackers) focus on hacking social media accounts. Because they typically have criminal intentions, they are similar to black hat hackers.
Kevin Mitnick is one of the most well-known black hat hackers.
Some (in)famous examples of grey hat hackers are: Anonymous (World famous hacktivist group)
Elite hacker is a social designation indebted to hackers who are most skilled in hacking. They have expert skills to break into information systems and pull in data and information from the same with ease. Elite hackers can use their expert skills in both white hat hacking and black hat hacking.
White Hat hackers: The “good guys”
White hat hackers are what's known as “ethical hackers.” They have all the expertise of black hat hackers, but organizations legally authorize them to “hack” their systems.
Black, white and grey hats are familiar to security pros, but as the spectrum evolves to include green, blue and red, things get muddled. Brush up on types of hackers, new and old.
Are red hat hackers criminals? Although red hat hackers are usually not criminals, the methods they employ may be illegal and frowned upon by the IT security community.
The outcomes are very different between the two types. One is paid for their professional cybersecurity services. However, red hat hackers only want to catch the attacker. They aren't seeking profit, they live for the thrill.
Kevin Mitnick holds the title as the world's most famous hacker ever, with this title dating back to 1995 by the US Department of Justice. Kevin Mitnick started hacking at an early age. He broke into the realm of public attention in the 1980s after he hacked into the North American Defense Command (NORAD).
Level 4: Black Hat Professionals
Above hacktivists and towards the top of the hacker chain of command are professional black hat hackers who are a very real threat in the 21 st century. Their expert coding skills and determined attitude means they are often successful at attaining their target.
Software such as Bitdefender, McAfee, Norton Antivirus, and VIPRE prevents hackers. There is no way to guarantee that hackers won't penetrate your devices, but these methods significantly decrease the likelihood of a hacking.
A white hat hacker -- or ethical hacker -- is an individual who uses hacking skills to identify security vulnerabilities in hardware, software or networks. However, unlike black hat hackers -- or malicious hackers -- white hat hackers respect the rule of law as it applies to hacking.
Script kiddie is a derogative term that computer hackers coined to refer to immature, but often just as dangerous, exploiters of internet security weaknesses. Not all novice hackers are script kiddies. Some inexperienced attackers do try to learn about and understand the tools they use.
Blue hat hackers, also known as ethical hackers or good hackers, are the antithesis of black hats. They use their skills for good rather than malicious purposes and are often employed by businesses or governments to uncover potential security vulnerabilities in computer systems and networks.