Hollywood has made it easier to believe that a typical hacker is some scrawny twenty-something nerd living in the basement of his mother’s home, without anything better to do other than cause endless misery by using his brains and skills to hack into the most sophisticated systems.
In reality however, there are different types of hackers.
They all have differing levels of skills as well.
Script Kiddies
They are the novices of the industry. They never hack for themselves and are more likely to copy code and use it for a virus. They are more likely to be the folks who have an endless flood of questions on message boards about what they latest trends are. They are amateurs who don’t care about coding skills and they don’t care about learning.
White Hat
These are commonly known as ethical hackers often hired to identify loopholes in cybersecurity and they must be certified to pursue a career in hacking. These professionals are more likely to be able to assist you with removing a virus. They are often state-sponsored and have advanced tools.
Black Hat
Known as crackers, these hackers tend to target weak security in a quest to steal. They look for vulnerabilities to access business and financial information and are typically regarded as the most popular of the different types of hackers.
Blue Hat
These hackers are more likely to simply want to seek vengeance on those who’ve made them angry.
Gray Hat
These hackers are in-between. They are not using their skills for personal gain and are also not legally authorised to hack. They don’t steal money or information.
Red Hat
These are regarded as the vigilantes of the world of hackers. They are more likely to shut the Black Hats down.