Black Hat Hackers

Black hat hackers are cybercriminals who hack into systems or networks for malicious purposes. Their primary motivation behind hacking may be personal or financial gain. For example, a black hacker may exploit vulnerabilities of a system and infect the system with malware without the system owner’s permission. After that, the hacker may steal sensitive data of the user and sell the data to the dark web for financial gain.

A black hat hacker may also perpetrate a DDoS attack or infect a system with ransomware and, after that, extort money from the victim. Black hat hackers may also be involved in cyber espionage.

In short, a black hat hacker is a hacker who hacks into a victim’s system or network illegally and without the victim’s permission and is motivated by personal or financial gain.

White Hat Hackers

White hat hackers are hackers who use their skills and expertise for good purposes. They are mostly employed by an employer or work as contractors. They may find vulnerabilities in a system and assess the overall security of an organization. But, they do so with the employer’s permission.

A white-hat hacker may use the same methods as a black hat hacker, but a white hat hacker will never exploit the vulnerabilities for any malicious purposes. If any vulnerabilities are found, a white hat hacker will report to the employer about the vulnerabilities found so that the organization’s overall security can be improved.

Grey Hat Hackers

A grey hat hacker also hacks into systems and networks, but a grey hat hacker may not exploit the vulnerabilities for malicious purposes. The difference between a grey hat hacker and a black hat hacker is, a grey hat hacker may not have the same malicious intentions as a black hat hacker. A grey hat hacker may find vulnerabilities in a system, and then instead of exploiting them, he may report to the user about the vulnerabilities. The grey hat hacker may then charge a small amount to the user and request to fix the vulnerabilities. But, if the owner disagrees, the grey hat hacker may make the sensitive information public.

The difference between a grey hat hacker and a white hat hacker is a grey hat hacker hacks into a system or network without the owner’s permission, while a white hat hacker does so with written permission from the owner.

Let’s look into an example. In 2013, a security researcher found some security vulnerability in Facebook. Exploiting the …