What You Need to Know About the Different Types of Hackers

The prospect of any of your devices, electronic systems, or information being hacked is scary to think about, but the more informed you are, the more you can protect yourself against hacking. Believe it or not, not all hackers are created equal. Obviously, you want to avoid being hacked by any of the following predators. Click here to use the Full Virus Scan feature to prevent malicious hackers from infecting your device:

Black Hat Hackers

This first genre of hackers are also known as “crackers,” and they’re the type that you’re likely to hear about on the news. These predators find banks or other corporations with weak security systems in order to penetrate their networks and steal money and credit card information from clients and customers.

Read More: Advanced Protection: How to Increase Your Privacy on Android

White Hat Hackers

These hackers are also known as “ethical hackers,” and you probably didn’t know there was such a thing out there! These individuals work to use their hacking skills positively, by using them to remove a virus, PenTest a company, and so on.

Gray Hat Hackers

These are the “in-betweeners” of the previous two hackers just mentioned. While they don’t steal money or information, they also don’t use their skills to do good deeds like the White Hatters do. Instead, these individuals use their skills to deface websites or do more “harmless” acts across the web.

Red Hat Hackers

These are regarded as some of the most powerful kinds of hackers, and they are able to stop Black Hatters in their tracks. To do so, they shut them down by infecting them with viruses and accessing their computers to completely destroy them, forcing them to get a whole new machine.

Green Hat Hackers

These are hackers that are new to the scene and are striving to learn more about the practice. Whether the Green Hatters will grow to use their skills for good or evil is undecided, but there are tons of them out there looking to learn the ropes — which is a frightening thought.

Blue Hat Hackers

This is another group that is new to the scene, but these hackers are out for revenge against anyone who has made them angry. The difference between Blue Hackers and Green Hackers is that Blue Hackers don’t have much desire to learn hacking skills after they’ve used them to get their revenge, whereas Green Hackers want to learn for the sake of knowing the “sport.”