The Psychology of Hacking ----------
In order to stop a hacker, you must first understand what drives them. In the
hacking community, there are several diverse and complicated skill levels
and motivations. It is important that you understand the different types of
hackers so that you can be able to predict their attempts and understand their
mentality. Even as a beginner who is learning how to hack a system, you do
not want to leave yourself vulnerable to a counterattack.
### Categories of hackers : ###
The biggest mistake people make is putting all hackers in the same group as
if they have a single purpose. This is often what the media does, and the
public has fallen for this lie. You cannot attempt to categorize a hacker
without first knowing why they performed the hack and what their goals
were. The hacking community is somewhat divided on how to name different
types of hackers, but generally speaking, these are the categories that most
people agree upon:
White Hats – Also known as ‘ethical hackers,’ these hackers operate
within the law. They stick to the hacker ethic, which states that a hacker
should “do no harm.” They also work as cyber security experts and are
hired to detect potential vulnerabilities in a system or network, and fix
them. This type of hacker works with software vendors to patch any
vulnerability in their software. White Hats usually do what they do as a
public service. Their intent is to make the public aware of the threats
out there so that people know how vulnerable a system is. However,
they never publicly publish such data until the vendor of the software
has done so themselves.
Black Hats – This type of hacker is often convinced that they are doing
a public service, but in reality, their major motivation is power and
money. They tend to penetrate networks so that they can steal or cause
damage to data. They are driven by malicious hatred or anger against
an organization or country. It is interesting to note that they got their
name from the fact that villains in most cowboy Western movies wore
black hats.
Gray Hats – This term was originally introduced by a very famous old-school hacking group who didn’t want to be associated with Black
Hats yet weren’t keen on being branded as corporate security testers.
Gray Hats can be described as hackers who used to be Black Hats but
have reformed and are now working as cyber security experts. They are
sometimes defined as hackers who consult as well as gain illegal access
to networks.
_________________________
### Classes of hackers : ###
There are specific classes that fall under the Black and White Hat hacker
categories mentioned above. These include:
Elite – These are the gurus of the hacking world. They have the skills
and knowledge nobody else has. But what makes them extremely rare
is their ethics and integrity. They often act as White Hats who know
network infrastructure and have the programming knowledge to write
their own tools. They aren’t motivated by criminal intentions and are
more intent on detecting coding problems or security flaws and
informing system administrators. You can only become an elite hacker
by performing a well-known hack or exploit or maintaining longevity
as a hacker.
Cyber Terrorists – This class of hacker goes beyond just crashing a
network using a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. They thrive and love
the fact that they can hide behind the veil of the web as they share
information with each other. They are able to hide encrypted data in
plain view such that only a fellow cyber criminal can find it.
Governments all across the globe tend to hire these types of hackers to
do their dirty business, ranging from simple spying to cyber warfare.
Script Kiddies – Nobody is as maligned or ridiculed as a script kiddie.
This class of hacker is young, inexperienced, and unskilled in creating
their own exploit tools. They use tools made by elite hackers, and can
only hack systems that others have identified vulnerabilities in. They
mostly hack for fun and are the ones whose exploits are commonly
mentioned in the media. Their main achievements are usually DoS
attacks and web page defacements.
Hacktivist – This is a combination of a hacker and an activist. They
carry political, social, or religious agendas and can be quite tenacious.
They deface websites and perform DoS attacks to put pressure on
governments or organizations they consider are causing harm to a
particular group of society.
Angry employees – These are people who have inside knowledge
about an organization and use their access to gather information for
themselves or others. They are considered extremely dangerous even
though the public rarely gets to hear about them. Such hackers are
normally quiet and shy but have narcissistic personalities. They turn on
their employers whenever they believe that they have not been
recognized for their work.
Virus Writers – These are people who take advantage of any
weaknesses that a hacker has exposed, and go on to write code to
exploit those vulnerabilities.
In order to stop a hacker, you must first understand what drives them. In the
hacking community, there are several diverse and complicated skill levels
and motivations. It is important that you understand the different types of
hackers so that you can be able to predict their attempts and understand their
mentality. Even as a beginner who is learning how to hack a system, you do
not want to leave yourself vulnerable to a counterattack.
### Categories of hackers : ###
The biggest mistake people make is putting all hackers in the same group as
if they have a single purpose. This is often what the media does, and the
public has fallen for this lie. You cannot attempt to categorize a hacker
without first knowing why they performed the hack and what their goals
were. The hacking community is somewhat divided on how to name different
types of hackers, but generally speaking, these are the categories that most
people agree upon:
White Hats – Also known as ‘ethical hackers,’ these hackers operate
within the law. They stick to the hacker ethic, which states that a hacker
should “do no harm.” They also work as cyber security experts and are
hired to detect potential vulnerabilities in a system or network, and fix
them. This type of hacker works with software vendors to patch any
vulnerability in their software. White Hats usually do what they do as a
public service. Their intent is to make the public aware of the threats
out there so that people know how vulnerable a system is. However,
they never publicly publish such data until the vendor of the software
has done so themselves.
Black Hats – This type of hacker is often convinced that they are doing
a public service, but in reality, their major motivation is power and
money. They tend to penetrate networks so that they can steal or cause
damage to data. They are driven by malicious hatred or anger against
an organization or country. It is interesting to note that they got their
name from the fact that villains in most cowboy Western movies wore
black hats.
Gray Hats – This term was originally introduced by a very famous old-school hacking group who didn’t want to be associated with Black
Hats yet weren’t keen on being branded as corporate security testers.
Gray Hats can be described as hackers who used to be Black Hats but
have reformed and are now working as cyber security experts. They are
sometimes defined as hackers who consult as well as gain illegal access
to networks.
_________________________
### Classes of hackers : ###
There are specific classes that fall under the Black and White Hat hacker
categories mentioned above. These include:
Elite – These are the gurus of the hacking world. They have the skills
and knowledge nobody else has. But what makes them extremely rare
is their ethics and integrity. They often act as White Hats who know
network infrastructure and have the programming knowledge to write
their own tools. They aren’t motivated by criminal intentions and are
more intent on detecting coding problems or security flaws and
informing system administrators. You can only become an elite hacker
by performing a well-known hack or exploit or maintaining longevity
as a hacker.
Cyber Terrorists – This class of hacker goes beyond just crashing a
network using a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. They thrive and love
the fact that they can hide behind the veil of the web as they share
information with each other. They are able to hide encrypted data in
plain view such that only a fellow cyber criminal can find it.
Governments all across the globe tend to hire these types of hackers to
do their dirty business, ranging from simple spying to cyber warfare.
Script Kiddies – Nobody is as maligned or ridiculed as a script kiddie.
This class of hacker is young, inexperienced, and unskilled in creating
their own exploit tools. They use tools made by elite hackers, and can
only hack systems that others have identified vulnerabilities in. They
mostly hack for fun and are the ones whose exploits are commonly
mentioned in the media. Their main achievements are usually DoS
attacks and web page defacements.
Hacktivist – This is a combination of a hacker and an activist. They
carry political, social, or religious agendas and can be quite tenacious.
They deface websites and perform DoS attacks to put pressure on
governments or organizations they consider are causing harm to a
particular group of society.
Angry employees – These are people who have inside knowledge
about an organization and use their access to gather information for
themselves or others. They are considered extremely dangerous even
though the public rarely gets to hear about them. Such hackers are
normally quiet and shy but have narcissistic personalities. They turn on
their employers whenever they believe that they have not been
recognized for their work.
Virus Writers – These are people who take advantage of any
weaknesses that a hacker has exposed, and go on to write code to
exploit those vulnerabilities.
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