Security hacker
- For hackers in computing, not just in security, see hacker. See also hacker (disambiguation)
In computer security, hacker refers to a type of computer hacker who is involved in programming and computer insecurity and are able to exploit systems and gain unauthorized access through skills, tactics and detailed knowledge.
Most commonly, hacker refers to a black-hat hacker (a malicious or criminal hacker). There are also white hats (ethical hackers) , and grey hats, although some of these terms are not universally accepted.
Terminology
Similar, synonymous and related terms, which are not mutually exclusive, or universally accepted:
- Hacker, may mean simply a person with mastery of computers. See hacker, and Hacker definition controversy
- White hat: A hacker who breaks security but who does so for altruistic or at least non-malicious reasons. White hats generally have a clearly defined code of ethics, and will often attempt to work with a manufacturer or owner to ameliorate discovered security weaknesses, although many reserve the implicit or explicit threat of public disclosure after a "reasonable" time as a prod to ensure timely response from a corporate entity. The term is also used to describe hackers who work to deliberately design and code more secure systems. To White Hats, the darker the hat, the more the ethics of the activity can be considered dubious. Conversely, blackhats may claim the lighter the hat, the more the ethics of the activity are lost.
- Grey hat: A hacker of ambiguous ethics and/or borderline legality, often frankly admitted.
- Blue Hat: Refers to outside computer security consulting firms that are used to bug test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be closed.
- Black Hat: someone who subverts computer security without authorization or indeed, anyone who has been accused of using technology (usually a computer or the Internet) for terrorism, vandalism, credit card fraud, identity theft, intellectual property theft, and many other forms of crime. This can mean taking control of a remote computer through a network, or software cracking.
- Cracker:
- A black hat hacker. Often used to differentiate black hat hackers and the general (positive) sense of hacker. The use of the term began to spread around 1983, probably introduced both due to similar phonetic sound and as construction from the historical slang of safe cracker. Also theorized by some to be a portmanteau of the words criminal and hacker.
- A security hacker who uses password cracking or brute force attacks. Related to the term safe cracker.
- A software cracker. A person specialized in working around copy protection mechanisms in software. Note that software crackers are not involved in exploiting networks, but copy protected software.
- Script kiddie: A computer intruder with little or no skill; a person who simply follows directions or uses a cook-book approach without fully understanding the meaning of the steps they are performing. Pejorative.
- Hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a political message. Web vandalism is not necessarily hacktivism.
Hacking tools
There are several recurring tools of the trade used by computer criminals and security experts:
- Trojan horse — These are programs designed so that they seem to do or be one thing, such as a legitimate software, but actually are or do another. They are not necessarily malicious programs. A trojan horse can be used to set up a back door in a computer system so that the intruder can return later and gain access. Viruses that fool a user into downloading and/or executing them by pretending to be useful applications are also sometimes called trojan horses. See also: Dialer.
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