The hackers
What's a hacker ? In this class, you will learn to know the notions of hacker, white hat, grey hat,
black hat, and lamer (no, it's not good to eat
). A list of the hackers groups and
of the most famous hackers will also be supplied to you at the end of the class.
Are you ready ? Let's go !
The hackers
By definition, the word "Hacker" means "Expert in his field", a specialist
who has a very wide expertise in the
IT security
control, and thus of the ways to evade it. Some of them use this expertise within the bounds of law
(notably the white hats) whereas some others use it against the law (black hats and lamers).
The hackers are ranked into 5 different categories :
- The white hats are
security consultants,
network administrators
or cyber-policemen.
They have a sense of
ethics
- they respects the others, in a way. They do
intrusions
tests in agreement with their clients to qualify the
security
level of their systems. They also look for flaws, testing the systems
(or protocols)
in order to find solutions to improve the
security.
- The black hats :
virus creators,
cyber-spies,
cyber-terrorists
and cyber-twisters,
they act against the law so as to either to harm, or to take advantage of their illegal acts.
Those hackers are sometimes harmful and don't have the same sense of
ethics than the
white hats. Various motivations drive them to act.
- The grey hats : if they don't hesitate to
get into
the systems without being allowed to, their main aim is not to harm. It's often the
IT achievement
which motivate them, a way to prove their agility.
Even so, they could destroy
websites which are
opposed to the ideas they advocate. Sometimes, we simply put together the grey hats' category
with the black hats' one (many hackers view themselves as black hats even thought they aren't
harmful).
- The script kiddies or lamers hack more by desire to attract attention than
to make progress, using some
codes
programmed by someone else. Those individuals are not really hackers, but they usually view themselves
as it. Contrary to the black hats, the lamers often don't know big deal, so whoever can act as a
script kiddie from one day to the next.
- The hacktivists are hackers who act in the aim to champion a well definite
cause which is close to their heart.
The cyber-terrorists
The cyber-terrorists are hackers who act against the law. Generally, the
white hats are not view as being cyber-terrorists, but the black hats and the lamers usually are.
Various terms tell the cyber-terrorists categories apart. A cyber-terrorist could be :
- A crasher if he clears datas only for fun.
- A cracker if he breaks down the
softwares'
protection, so as to be able to modify them just as he likes, or if he wants to appropriate other
persons' passwords (then the word "cracker" has a double meaning).
- A carder if he breaks down the smart cards' protection systems
like the bank cards' ones.
- A phreaker if he breaks down the
Public Switched Telephone Network's protections (so he phones without paying the
telephone company,
he listens to the telephone conversations, ...).
Famous hackers groups
Here are some hackers groups which, since the end of the eighties, sometimes organize events :
Famous hackers
Some famous hackers :
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