Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 32 views

    Hackers: Motivation and Types

    Uploaded by

    Amro A
    Hackers can be classified into different categories based on their motives and intentions: 1. White hat hackers try to find security weaknesses without harmful intent for purposes like testing and improvement. 2. Black hat hackers aim to damage systems or steal information for malicious reasons like identity theft, which is illegal. 3. Grey hat hackers fall between white and black hats, sometimes exploiting systems without permission to expose issues. 4. Other categories include script kiddies, neophytes, hacktivists, and those who specialize in areas like website, network, email, password or computer hacking. Ethical hacking involves security testing with permission.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Hackers: Motivation and Types

    Uploaded by

    Amro A
    32 views6 pages
    Hackers can be classified into different categories based on their motives and intentions: 1. White hat hackers try to find security weaknesses without harmful intent for purposes like testing and improvement. 2. Black hat hackers aim to damage systems or steal information for malicious reasons like identity theft, which is illegal. 3. Grey hat hackers fall between white and black hats, sometimes exploiting systems without permission to expose issues. 4. Other categories include script kiddies, neophytes, hacktivists, and those who specialize in areas like website, network, email, password or computer hacking. Ethical hacking involves security testing with permission.

    Original Title

    Hackers

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Hackers can be classified into different categories based on their motives and intentions: 1. White hat hackers try to find security weaknesses without harmful intent for purposes like testing and improvement. 2. Black hat hackers aim to damage systems or steal information for malicious reasons like identity theft, which is illegal. 3. Grey hat hackers fall between white and black hats, sometimes exploiting systems without permission to expose issues. 4. Other categories include script kiddies, neophytes, hacktivists, and those who specialize in areas like website, network, email, password or computer hacking. Ethical hacking involves security testing with permission.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    32 views6 pages

    Hackers: Motivation and Types

    Uploaded by

    Amro A
    Hackers can be classified into different categories based on their motives and intentions: 1. White hat hackers try to find security weaknesses without harmful intent for purposes like testing and improvement. 2. Black hat hackers aim to damage systems or steal information for malicious reasons like identity theft, which is illegal. 3. Grey hat hackers fall between white and black hats, sometimes exploiting systems without permission to expose issues. 4. Other categories include script kiddies, neophytes, hacktivists, and those who specialize in areas like website, network, email, password or computer hacking. Ethical hacking involves security testing with permission.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 6

    Sudan University of Science and

    Technology

    College of Engineering

    Electronic Engineering Department

    Hackers: Motivation and Types

    Prepared by:

    Amro Abdo Abbas Ahmed (5th year Telecommunication)

    Supervised by:

    Dr. Ashraf Qsim Al-Sayed

    1
    2
     Introduction :

    Originally, a Hacker was defined as one who is enthusiastic about


    computers, whether that be programming or getting into the guts of a
    computer to see how it works. In the past being referred to as a Hacker
    was a compliment . Hacking has been a part of computing for almost six
    decades, which covers a wide range of topics. The first known event of
    hacking had taken place in April 1955 at M.I.T “hack” first came to
    mean fussing with machines and at the same time, the term "Hacker"
    was originated [1].

     Motives of Hackers :
    There could be various positive and negative intentions behind
    performing hacking activities, such as [2] :
    o Just for fun (to apply and learn)
    o Show-off (i.e., increasing their reputation within the hacker
    subculture)
    o Steal important information
    o Damaging the system
    o Money extortion
    o System security testing
    o To break policy compliance (e.g. unlocking paid software with
    crackers and keygen)

    3
     Types of Hackers :
    Hackers can be classified into different categories, based on their intent
    of hacking a system [3]:

    i. White Hat Hackers


    They are also known as Ethical Hackers. They never intent to harm a
    system, rather they try to find out weaknesses in a computer or a
    network system as a part of penetration testing and vulnerability
    assessments. Ethical hacking is not illegal and it is one of the
    demanding jobs available in the IT industry.

    ii. Black Hat Hackers


    Also known as crackers, are those who hack in order to gain
    unauthorized access to a system and harm its operations or steal
    sensitive information. Black Hat hacking is always illegal because of its
    bad intent which includes stealing corporate data, violating privacy,
    damaging the system, blocking network communication, etc.

    iii. Grey Hat Hackers


    Are a blend of both black hat and white hat hackers. They act without
    malicious intent but for their fun, they exploit a security weakness in a
    computer system or network without the owner’s permission or
    knowledge. Their intent is to bring the weakness to the attention of the
    owners and getting appreciation or a little reward from the owners.

    4
     Miscellaneous Hackers

    Apart from the above well-known classes of hackers, we have the


    following categories of hackers based on what they hack and how they do it
    [3]:
    o Red Hat Hackers
    Are a blend of both black hat and white hat hackers. They are usually on
    the level of hacking government agencies, top-secret information hubs, and
    generally anything that falls under the category of sensitive information.
    o Blue Hat Hackers
    A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms
    who is used to bug-test a system prior to its launch. They look for
    loopholes that can be exploited and try to close these gaps.
    o Elite Hackers
    This is a social status among hackers, which is used to describe the most
    skilled. Newly discovered exploits will circulate among these hackers.
    o Script Kiddie
    Is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged
    automated tools written by others, usually with little understanding of the
    underlying concept, hence the term Kiddie.
    o Neophyte
    A neophyte, "n00b", or "newbie" or "Green Hat Hacker" is someone who is
    new to hacking or phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of
    the workings of technology and hacking
    o Hacktivist

    5
    A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a social,
    ideological, religious, or political message. In general, most hacktivism
    involves website defacement or denial of-service attacks.

     Types of Hacking :
    We can differentiate hacking into different categories, based on what is
    being hacked. Here is a set of examples [2] :-

    Website Hacking : Hacking a website means taking unauthorized control


    over a web server and its associated software such as databases and other
    interfaces.
    Network Hacking : Hacking a network means gathering information about
    a network by using tools like Telnet, NS lookup, Ping, Tracert, Netstat,
    etc. with the intent to harm the network system and hamper its operation.
    Email Hacking : It includes getting unauthorized access on an Email
    account and using it without taking the consent of its owner.
    Ethical Hacking : Ethical hacking involves finding weaknesses in a
    computer or network system for testing purpose and finally getting them
    fixed.
    Password Hacking : This is the process of recovering secret passwords
    from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system.
    Computer Hacking : This is the process of stealing computer ID and
    password by applying hacking methods and getting unauthorized access
    to a computer system.

     References:
    [1] https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/a-short-
    history-of-hack
    [2]https://www.tutorialspoint.com/ethical_hacking/ethical_hacking_q
    uick_guide.htm
    [3]https://www.tutorialspoint.com/ethical_hacking/ethical_hacking_ha
    cker_types.htm
    6

    You might also like