What is a hacker?

A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by standard or non-standard means.  Although, whenever you hear about “hackers” you think about “cybercriminals,” but it is not always true. As we said, a hacker is just a normal person like use who uses technical skills to overcome a challenge or problem.  But, we have already put labels that hackers are always bad, but there’s always a good and bad side of hackers, and sometimes there are also people who fall somewhere in between.

Types of hackers

There are mainly three types of hackers.

• White hat hackers
• Black hat hackers
• Grey hat hackers

White hat hackers

A “white hat” hacker is an ethical computer security expert or programmer who works with a company or ethical hacking groups to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in order to fix them, not take advantage of them. White hat hackers can also be used by legitimate figures in legal situations. For example, law enforcement agencies sometimes use hacking techniques in order to gather evidence or criminals and other malicious actors. This may include using anonymity tools such as a VPN, or the dark web to mask their identities online, posing as criminals themselves.

You may have also heard about “hacktivists,” who use technology to spread social, political, ideological, or religious messages. Hackers can also take participate in the software side of maker culture. These hackers use programming and electronics to create art, music, applications, or innovative solution to challenges.

Black hat hackers

Black hat hackers are the people you mostly think of as "bad hackers". The difference between black and white hackers is only about the intentions.  White hackers do ethical hacking, on the other hand, black hackers use illegal ways to break into computer systems and try to steal sensitive data for making money or for their own profit.

Black hat hackers intentionally violate computer security for a variety of reasons, such as theft, fraud, corporate espionage, and even old-fashioned malice. (The terms “white has” and “black hat” come from the Western movie genre in American because the heroes of those stories often wore white hats, while the villains wore black ones.)

Grey hat hackers

Grey hat hacker is the people who fall somewhere between white and black hat hackers. Their goals are somewhere in between. Many of them work as a freelancer looking to make a profit by exposing vulnerabilities in an organization’s security structure and offering to fix them for a free.

What hackers do?

Hackers use technical skills to break cybersecurity whether legal or illegal way. Ethical hackers test for cybersecurity vulnerabilities and may take up hacking as a profession-for example, a penetration tester (pen tester). Ethical hackers may do hacking for a legitimate reason for government or private organizations. Hacker tries to gain unauthorized access to a computer, networks, computing systems, mobile devices, or internet of things systems.  

Some hackers often use hacking tactics to exploit cybersecurity defenses. They intentionally violate computer security for a variety of reasons, such as theft, fraud, corporate espionage, and even old-fashioned malice. Malicious hackers occur this fraud to steal login credentials, financial information, and other types of sensitive information.

The end goal of black hat hackers is just to sell your sensitive information to other hackers for money. However, sometimes hacking can often occur for personal and political reasons.  What hackers do with your information depends on the hacker’s intention.  

To exploit a social weakness, hackers may attempt to manipulate social outcomes through false pretenses, such as impersonating a co-worker or other individual to gain financial or login information. Hackers may also use their technical skills to install dangerous malware, steal or destroy data, or disrupt an organization’s services.

How do hackers hack?

Hackers use different hacking tools to commence attacks. But hackers can also use psychology to trick the user into clicking on a malicious attachment or providing personal data. These tactics are referred to as social engineering.

There are various hacking tools and techniques that hackers use to gain access to a user’s system. Here are some common hacking techniques include:

• Phishing
• Malware
• Botnets
• Browser hijacks
• Denial of service (DDoS) attacks
• Ransomware
• DNS-Domain Name System
• Structured Query Language (SQL) injection
• Keylogger injection
• Brute-force attack
• Rootkits
• Trojans
• Viruses
• Worms

How to Avoid Hackers

Hackers are all around, and avoiding hackers is a really difficult task. You can follow the below tips to avoid hackers and hacking crimes to secure your business and yourself.

To avoid hackers, you can use anti-virus protection software. You can give one try to Priil antivirus and learn how you can protect your data.

Do not download any apps, software, or applications from unknown or doubtful sources.  Always download from legitimate sources like Google Play Store or Apple Store.

Never share your social security number, your login credentials, credit card numbers, or etc. by means of mail or phone.

Keep updating software and operating system.

Make sure you browse safely and never visit any malicious website on your computer. 

Make sure to set passwords strong and unique.

Final Touch

Hey guys! This was the guide about “what is a hacker.” A hacker is a normal person like all of us; however, it depends on the intention of the hackers that make them white-black and grey hackers. I hope this guide would tell you everything about hackers and hacking tools used by hackers.  If you still have any queries regarding this article, please let us know in the comment section below.