A variety of hats are worn in the network security world and these include Blue Hats, White Hats, Grey Hats and Black Hats. Each hat group represents a specific hacking group that serves a different purpose in security. A hacker is formally defined as a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system. Even though the formal definition gives a bad rep to hackers, not all of them are bad. Some of the hat group actually contribute positively to Network Security. The following outlines the beliefs of each group, their significance in Network Security and their overall goals.
White Hat
White hat hackers intend to do good and infiltrate systems in order to point out security flaws. They do not have malicious intent and do not try to steal data. These hackers have the exact opposite goals than those of black hat hackers. These type of hackers employ the same methods and functionality as black hat hackers to help companies improve their security. In a way, these hackers can be considered as reformed black hackers that are using their power for good and not for evil. These types of hackers often conduct penetration testing and are paid to suggest ways to plug in these holes (suggesting patches). The name white hat is claimed to come from old Western movies where the cliché was for the good guy to wear a white cowboy hat. I find this whole concept of white hat hackers very beneficial to society. Not only do they continue to keep the thrill of hacking into systems, they can do so for good and get paid for it. It seems like a win-win for society.
Blue Hat
This term can be used to describe hackers that are part of a separate security consulting company who get hired by clients to help improve security of systems before they launch. According to PC Magazine, a blue hat hacker is formally defined as a security professional invited by Microsoft to find vulnerabilities in Windows. In my opinion, the objective and goals of a blue hat hacker are similar to that of a white hat hacker. They both aim to help organizations improve some aspect of their security. The biggest difference I see is that blue hat hackers seem to focus on specific products, where white hat hackers have no specific focus.
Black Hat
Based on the powerpoints presented in class, blackhat hackers are those who violate computer security for their own personal gain, as opposed to trying to help improve the security of the computer. These hackers main intent are to cause damage to the targeted computer. These are the hackers that are portrayed in films as the villains. It is most likely that these hackers are after the most lucrative data they can find, which include credit card data, personal data or medical data. There attacks most likely lead to identity theft or significant money lost. My opinion on these type of hackers are that not all of them are inherently bad people. You can argue that some of the members of ethical hacker group Anonymous can be characterized as Black Hat.This is because I believe a Black Hat Hacker is one whose hack causes much intended damage. For example, the attack that Anonymous conducted on Boston’s Children Hospital back in 2014 was malicious, and intended to bring their systems down to make a point. Their intent was not to help improve the Hospital’s Security system or work with the Hospital.
Grey Hat
A grey hat hacker is one who sits in the middle of good and bad. In the hacker’s world, this means that a grey hat sits in between Black and White Hats. These type of hackers break into a system without the owner’s consent, but not with malicious intent. The biggest distinction here is the permission aspect of their actions. For example, a hacker that decides to hack a company without its permission but reports it to the company afterwards would still be considered a grey hat hacker. As well, the distinction of personal gain can also help identify a grey hat hacker in comparison to a black or white hat hacker. An example here would be a hacker that hacks a company’s infrastructure but decides to post it to the public, rather than take advantage of it themselves. In my opinion, these type of hackers are hard to classify. They sit in a grey area of hacking where they can easily jump to either side. I believe the type of hackers in this space are those who do not want to work with companies but are too ethical to conduct attacks against systems and steal personal data.
Conclusions
In general, the hat society is a creative way of characterizing the many different intents of hackers. On one end of the spectrum we have a white hat hacker, whose main intent is to do good for an organization. They typically ask for advice to penetrate an organization’s system and share all information with the organization. On the other end, we have the famous black hat hacker. This hacker is famous throughout media and pop culture and is known as the villain. Their main intent is to cause harm and to steal/use personal data. Often enough, a lot of white hat hackers originally were black hat hackers at some point. In between the two we have grey hat hackers (as white and black together make grey). They embody a little bit of both groups as they typically do not ask for permission to penetrate a system but will not do so with the intent of personal gain. Lastly, blue hat hackers can be considered as a specific type of white hat hacker. They have been associated with Microsoft usually and typically involve a third party consulting company helping them identify issues in their software. In conclusion, all the hacker hat groups have their specific role in society today.