Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Word of the Day: black hat

Word of the Day WhatIs.com
Daily updates on the latest technology terms |November 8, 2017
black hat

Black hat refers to a hacker who breaks into a computer system or network with malicious intent. A black hat hacker may exploit security vulnerabilities for monetary gain; to steal or destroy private data; or to alter, disrupt or shut down websites and networks. The black hat hacker may also sell these exploits to other criminal organizations.

The term black hat differentiates criminal hackers from white hat and grey hat hackers. These categories come from a perceived trope in Western movies, where the heroes could be identified by the white hats they wore and the villains by their black hats.

A white hat hacker, or an ethical hacker, is the antithesis of a black hat hacker. White hat hackers are often hired by organizations to conduct penetration tests and vulnerability assessments on their systems to improve their security defenses. They conduct tests and attacks on websites and software in order to identify possible vulnerabilities, while also following established rules, such as bug bounty policies. They will notify the affected vendor of any issues directly so that a patch can be released to fix the flaw.

A gray hat hacker operates with more ethical ambiguity -- while they do not hack into systems with the malicious goal of stealing data, they may be willing to use illegal methods to find flaws, expose vulnerabilities to the public or sell zero-day exploits to government and intelligence agencies.

A black hat hacker is typically one that engages in cybercrime operations and uses hacking for financial gain, cyberespionage purposes or other malicious motives. Read more...

Quote of the Day

"Criminal hackers know they must do what they can to test the limits of your application environment, while at the same time, flying under the radar." - Kevin Beaver

 

Trending Terms

white hat
ethical hacker
penetration testing
vulnerability analysis
bug bounty program

 
Learning Center

Applying a hacker mindset to application security
Applying a hacker mindset to enterprise security operations can help spot overlooked weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Here's how.

New cybersecurity report gets the hacker perspective
A cybersecurity report used a hacker survey to detail how adversaries think about attacking enterprise and how to best secure an environment.

Stamos preaches defensive security research in Black Hat keynote
Black Hat 2017 kicked off with Facebook's Alex Stamos preaching the importance of defensive security research and community diversity.

What are the pros and cons of hiring an ex-hacker?
Hiring an ex-hacker can boost an enterprise's security stature, but doing so comes with its own risks. Here are the pros and cons of hiring ex-hackers.

Dark web markets' shutdown may lead to more arrests
The shutdown of AlphaBay and Hansa dark web markets leads to potential data on hundreds or thousands of site vendors and users.

Writing for Business

Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing, intrusion ____________.
a. testing, and red teaming
b. testing and red teaming
Answer

 

Stay In Touch
For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com

 

Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!

 

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