What is term “Hacker” means? Who are Hackers? What are types of Hackers?

To be told truth there is no specific or official definition of term “Hacker” but we do have vague definition like in 1960 people who are extremely skilled programmers, can fix bugs and stay all day in front of computer and program using programming language like FORTRAN and others. In 1960s no one seems to mind hackers and where reputed computer gurus who could push computers beyond their limits and were taken very positive in the field of computer science. After the invention of UNIX in 1969 by Ken Thompson, the future of computer industry was permanently changed. In 1980, “Hacker” term was used in an article Psychology Today titled “The Hacker Papers” in which addictive nature of computer user was discussed.

The first person that was charged with hacking a computer did not go to jail due to there being no specific criminal offense at the time.

In today’s world term “Hacker” term is used as negative as they are those people who access unauthorized data, crash system for personal benefits, leaks the confidential data. In actual term “Hacker” means people with good technical knowledge related to computer programming, networking, social engineering to overcome the technical problems. I just remember term “yin and yang”, which means positive-negative in everything. Some people use same knowledge to overcome technical problem and some to use weakness of system for personal benefits. According to usage there are many types of hacker. Most accepted types are “White Hat”, “Gray Hat” and “Black Hat”.

Types of Hacker:

White Hat Hacker - the good guys also known as ethical hackers. Normally hired by organization for testing systems vulnerabilities, pen testing, designing security system who hack their own system legally with permission and check whether the system is hack proof or not. Large organization, Governments, banks, etc.  hire such people. They maintain network framework, try to find loopholes in the system and make patches to loopholes and automate intrusion detection system for any malware or threats.

Gray Hat Hacker- guys with no ill intention but are illegal. Some of them are learners and they will just notify administrator about the flaws in system. Gray Hat hacker are also leak the public information like corruption and other wrong doing of government for the benefit of society. They are usually fighting with both governments and black hat hackers. If they use their personal hacking skill for their personal benefit, they become Black Hat hackers.

Black Hat, Gray Hat & White Hat name came from the western movies where cowboy with Black Hat usually refered as Bad Guys, Gray Hat refered as mix up of  bad & good guy and White Hat refered as Good guys.

Black Hat Hacker- the bad guys who access unauthorized with bad intention for monetary benefits or revenge. They find loopholes in system and install malwares and infect system with worms or encrypt files and ask for money in the form of bitcoins or other untraceable money. They also hack system for stealing personal information of user like credit card info and sell in black market. They do their all bad works in Dark-Web like selling illegal products, illegal contracts etc. Black Hat hackers have notoriously stolen millions dollar from various banks, and private data. They are pure cyber criminals.

In 2015, Cyber Hackers stole approximately $1 billion from over 100 banks in one of the largest bank heists ever.

Beside these three types, there are other named type like Red Hat, Yellow Hat , Blue Hat etc. but are not accepted by most of the people.