In this video, we're going to go over the three types of hackers, I want you to get an understanding
of what you guys are actually the good guys, which guys are the bad guys and which guys are, you know,
in between which guys are essentially on the borderline.
They aren't necessarily good, but they're not necessarily bad so that you can understand which side
is what and what these different types of hackers actually spend their time doing and which one obviously
is going to be the best for you as an ethical hacker, cybersecurity professional.
So let's go right ahead and jump in here.
So the first type of hacker that you want to understand is the white hat.
Now, these are going to be all of the good guys, right?
These are the guys that are actually using their professional experience.
Right, to actually help companies, help organizations actually deter hackers from stealing information.
And so what these guys are doing is they're using their skills for defensive purposes.
Right.
Helping businesses, helping organizations in these white hats are usually professional security individuals
that have the knowledge, the experience, the expertise as a hacker and use their knowledge to locate
weaknesses and implement countermeasures.
Right.
To prevent any type of vulnerable attacks.
They're the ones that actually ask permission.
Right.
Get the permission from the actual owner of the data before they're going into and actually hacking
the system looking for information.
Because what they're really doing in a sense here is a white header and what you're going to be doing
as well.
You're going to be putting your mind into the mind of a hacker, of a bad guy, in a sense.
Right, because you want to think from that criminal perspective so that you can get an idea as far
as what type of strategies, actions, plans will the type of individuals that are looking to take over
information in a malicious manner.
How are they thinking?
What are they perceiving?
How are they viewing, you know, this type of system, the one that you're looking to protect, to
defend whatever that may be?
Right.
And then we have the black hats.
Now, these are the well known bad guys, right?
These are the malicious attackers, the ones that actually attack organizations, companies, individuals
that, you know, do the ransomware is where they're taking over our companies network companies information
and they won't release it until they get some sort of reward, some sort of payment.
They have essentially stepped on over to the dark side.
Right.
You want to think about like a Star Wars type of analogy where, you know, you have the good guys and
bad guys.
Right.
And the black hats are unfortunately the individuals that have turned over to the dark side because
there are individuals that, you know, are on the white hat.
And for whatever reason, they choose to go to the dark side, so to speak.
Right.
And they turn into doing malicious attacks.
Right.
But as white hats, we're looking to defend, you know, the systems and networks from these black hats.
These are the guys that are looking to take advantage of their skill to use it for illegal purposes.
They break into systems without getting permission.
Right.
Without any kind of access.
They're looking at how they can gather information, how they can gain access to data and use it to
their benefit so that they can essentially get paid in a selfish manner for the release of that information
or for whatever, you know, malicious intent that may be.
Now, the gray hat, these are the guys that work, you know, on either side of the fence here.
They are on the offensive and they're on the defensive.
And it all depends on the situation.
Some of these folks will often cross over.
They are oftentimes self-taught and they're interested in hacking different technologies, different
tools, just oftentimes for, you know, out of curiosity.
And so a lot of these folks, they didn't really go to school or get any type of formal education initially.
They have essentially, for the most part, and not in every case, have taught themselves the skills
of how to hack systems, how to hack networks that have a very diverse set of tools as well as skill
sets.
But they're more on the curious side and they may from time to time across the line, over to the dark
side.
But they're more on the curious side versus the actual black hat, where their actual intent is more
on the malicious side.
So that's going to be here for the three types of hackers.
And we'll see you on the next one.