What are White-Hat, Gray-Hat and Black-Hat Hackers?
Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025
A Hacker is a person who is familiar with Computer Networks, Linux, Cryptography, and other skills. Most people are not aware of Ethical Hackers. They pursue criminals when they hear the word hacking. But not all hackers are bad. Some of them used their skills in legal activities.
Let's discuss the 3 major types of hackers:
White-Hat Hackers
Black-Hat Hackers
Gray-Hat Hackers
These names are derived from the old Western movies of American popular culture, where the protagonists wore white or light-colored hats, and the antagonists wore black hats.
The government hires white hat hackers to protect their websites and databases. These hackers also work for space organizations.
Some ethical hackers work with organizations that find weaknesses in their software.
They take permission from the system owners and use hacking techniques identical to black hat hackers, but they do so legally. They make people aware of cyber threats and ways to prevent them.
Example:
Charlie Miller: A well-known security researcher who found vulnerabilities in Apple products and worked with the company to fix them.
Black-Hat Hackers
Black-Hat Hackers are those hackers who enter the system without taking owners' permission.
These hackers use vulnerabilities as entry points. They hack systems illegally.
They use their skills to deceive and harm people.
They conduct various attacks, write malware, and damage system security.
They steal users' passwords, data, and credit card information by damaging system security.
Black-hat hackers make money by selling data and credit card information on the dark web.
They are also ruining anyone's reputation to take revenge.
Sometimes they steal the personal data of users and blackmail them.
They also hack social media profiles by sending links or attachments.
Some countries (China, Russia, and the USA) hires black hat hacker to steal data related to militaries from other countries.
Example:
Albert Gonzalez: Responsible for one of the largest credit card thefts in history, hacking into various networks, including Heartland Payment Systems and TJX Companies, resulting in the theft of millions of credit card numbers.
Gray-Hat Hackers
Gray-Hat Hackers are a mix of both black and white hat hackers.
These types of hackers find vulnerabilities in systems without the permission of owners.
They don't have any malicious intent. However, this type of hacking is still considered illegal.
But they never share information with black hat hackers.
They find issues and report the owner, sometimes requesting a small amount of money to fix it. But some organizations disregard gray hat hackers because the hacker is not bound by ethical hacking policies.
These type of hackers does not put someone at risk.
Example:
The LulzSec Group: While their primary goal was to have fun and create chaos (bordering on black-hat activities), they also exposed several vulnerabilities in high-profile companies and government organizations like Sony and the CIA.
