There are lots of criminal entities in the world of information processing. Hackers are a part of the lot and they are specialized in searching for security weaknesses in a system. A hacker can inspect a system and find out where there are easy access points and where the security configuration is not as good as would be expected. There are different kinds of hackers and in the following paragraphs, we are going to take a look into two different kinds of hackers, the black hat hackers and the white hat hackers as well as what makes them different and what to look for in each kind of hacker.
Black hat hackers are the evil kind of hackers who break into information systems in order to steal information that they can then sell in the dark market of the internet or make use of the information they find to gain access into other systems. They are criminals who will try all they can in order to penetrate into a system and maybe plant malware and other harmful programs on the systems they hack into. The hacker will not be afraid of the damage that they are causing to the system and will take their time to create exploits that they can use to get past systems.
White hat hackers are the good hackers who only study a system for security weaknesses that can then be patched up to ensure there is a stronger system that has better defenses against the evil hackers. The white hat hackers will attack a system from the mindset of the evil hacker in order to find out their ways and methods hence create better defenses and improve the security of information systems in a manner that discourages the black hat hacker from getting into the system.
The white hat hacker will try to penetrate into a system but as they continue with the penetration testing, list down the security vulnerabilities that they discover in the course of their study. These vulnerabilities are used to understand what makes the system exposed to information security threats and can be turned into a good thing. Vulnerabilities ensure that wherever an evil hacker would be having an easy time gaining access into the system, they are met with the security upgrades and patches that have been put in place to discourage them from getting into the systems without authorizations.
White hat hackers make information system’s security points stronger and more effective against the black hat hackers and this brings about a sense of balance to the world of information security. The black hat hackers are not authorized into any of the systems that they work at gaining access into and for this reason, will barely be allowed into a secured system. The security practices of an organization are also upgraded by the results that the white hat hacker produces from their findings with the security structure of their information system. This is why hackers are not all bad and there are different kinds of them.
