Being a hacker is not easy: you have to keep up to date with new technologies, have talent and cold blood. Here is a categorization
Hackers can be classified into two categories: good and bad. So, there are some hackers who put all their efforts to generate chaos without any valid reason in the world, others do it for money and there are, instead, those who put their talent to find vulnerabilities in the systems and fix them.
To be a hacker is not a simple "job". It takes extremely advanced knowledge, intuition, imagination, a great talent, a constant updating on new technologies, a continuous study of codes and techniques for the violation of networks and security systems, the ability to identify bugs and vulnerabilities, and a lot of cold blood because you risk jail if you are caught. There are, as mentioned, bad hackers - even very dangerous ones - depending on the motivations behind the life choice they made, and those that many consider "ethical" who have crossed over to the other side of the fence and are fighting against their former "colleagues".
Hacktivist
Not all hackers are motivated by money. Some hackers are driven by political or religious reasons to hack a system. These hackers usually focus on making the misdeeds of government authorities or specific individuals public knowledge by trying to break into their online servers. Some hacktivists also carry out attacks just for revenge issues or to annoy their target for simple fun.
Black Hat Hacker
This category is, usually, considered "bad" and largely represents the stereotype of a hacker: sitting in their comfy chair in a dark room, surrounded by screens, intent on writing malicious code to wreak havoc. Black Hat Hackers are those who develop and distribute web-based software filled with malicious code and viruses, as well as compromise files on systems and attack computers or networks. They are the ones who are able to discover flaws in the security systems of an application, device or network - caused, in the first place, by human errors in code writing - and then launch an attack or find more bugs after the flaws have been, somehow, "plugged". This category of hackers are primarily attracted by financial gain and, not surprisingly, aim to steal their targets' financial data. These hackers are also the reason why the White Hat Hacker category exists.
White Hat Hacker
White Hat Hackers - also known as ethical hackers - are the exact opposite of Black Hat Hackers, not in terms of skills, but in terms of goals: they put their talents at the service of those in need. For a fee, of course. They are good people, experts in corporate cybersecurity, who use their skills as hackers to verify that a system is secure. While the goal of Black Hat Hackers is to find vulnerabilities, flaws and bugs, the goal of White Hat Hackers is to fix these dangerous flaws so that no one can exploit them to breach the security of the system, and if that happens, they try to stop the attack immediately.
State-Sponsored Hacker
Governments around the world - until yesterday - assert their power over land, water and air. The Internet world has now become a new battleground and hackers are the weapon of choice. Cyberspace is the new war zone and its control has become one of the main "agendas" on the list of military institutions globally. Hackers are, therefore, hired by government agencies to carry out certain "special missions" ranging from collecting data and information, possibly undetected, to attacking individuals and organizations.
Spy Hacker
It's not only governments and its various agencies that require the work of professional hackers, but also the corporate world to steal competitors' trade secrets or information that can harm them. They are real spies because - if they are not able to infiltrate competitors' computer systems and networks remotely - they gain entry physically. The nature of Spy Hackers' work is similar to that of hacktivists, only they have no motivation of their own, except to earn money by completing the task assigned to them by the client. They are, in essence, mercenaries of the modern era.
Cyber Terrorists
Cyber terrorists - as the name implies - are essentially terrorists by nature, only their battlefield also expands to cyberspace. They spread chaos on the web with the sole objective of instilling fear and terror among the masses. This is the most dangerous category of hackers because they use all their ingenuity and talent to "decapitate" an economy, release malicious codes that can destroy electrical or telecommunication networks of an entire organization, a state and much more. They follow their beliefs - usually motivated by political or religious bias - and act inconsistently as a "normal" terrorist would. L’unica differenza è che usano Internet per soddisfare che le loro menti malate suggeriscono loro di fare.
Script Kiddie
Sono dei criminali della categoria dei Black Hat Hacker che, di solito, cercano la popolarità attaccando reti o sfregiando siti utilizzando codici e programmi presi in prestito. Questo tipo di hacker, difficilmente è in grado di scrivere codice originale, non sono considerati abili come gli altri, e la loro carriera non dura molto a lungo.
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Fonte foto: Shutterstock
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