HACKER ATTITUDE

Several subgroups of the computer underground with different attitudes and aims use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other, or try to exclude some specific group with which they do not agree. Eric S. Raymond advocates that members of the computer underground should be called crackers. Yet, those people see themselves as hackers and even try to include the views of Raymond in what they see as one wider hacker culture, a view harshly rejected by Raymond himself. Instead of a hacker – cracker dichotomy, they give more emphasis to a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat (“ethical hacking”), grey hat, black hat and script kiddie. In contrast to Raymond, they usually reserve the term cracker to refer to black hat hackers, or more generally hackers with unlawful intentions.

White hat =

A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons.

Grey hacker =

A grey hat hacker is a hacker of ambiguous ethics and/or borderline legality, often frankly admitted.

Black Hacker =

A black hat hacker is someone who subverts computer security without authorization or who uses technology (usually a computer or the Internet) for vandalism (malicious destruction), credit card fraud, identity theft, intellectual property theft, or many other types of crime. This can mean taking control of a remote computer through a network, or software cracking.

Script kiddie =

A script kiddie is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged automated tools written by others.

Hacktivist =

A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a political message.