The Different Types Of Hackers You Need To Watch Out For

Types Of Hackers You Need To Watch Out For

Hacking and cyberattacks should be one of the first things you think about before clicking on a strange website link or download button on the internet.

This is because hackers have found clever ways to gain access to our computers and steal your important information, such as your financial details or identity. To combat this, you should know about the most common types of hackers so that you can find the right ways to defend your computer systems in a worst-case scenario.

Businesses lose millions every single year to cyberattacks, so it’s important to arm yourself against these hackers to avoid losing money.

In this blog, we’ll be discussing five hackers that we think are worth knowing and you should watch out for!

White Hat Hackers

The first type of hacker that we’ll be discussing is known as a white hat hacker. In the industry, these are simply known as ‘white hats’ and are known for having ethical motives.

In other words, white hat hackers don’t hack for harmful reasons. Instead of finding system vulnerabilities and exploiting them to steal private information, these hackers find vulnerabilities to flag and fix them.

Businesses often hire white hat hackers to help them create more robust security measures to mitigate the effects of a potential cyber attack. These hackers will perform security tests to identify any weaknesses in the system. From here, they can recommend reinforcements to make sure hackers with bad intentions have fewer opportunities to exploit system weaknesses.

Black Hat Hackers

As you might have already guessed, black hat hackers are the total opposite of white hat hackers and they have only bad intentions. Black hat hackers are out to steal your personal information for financial gain or to gain access to your systems.

You might recognize ‘black hats’ from Global News stories, as these groups tend to target big businesses with devastating ransomware attacks. These attacks are on the rise, and the Canadian government deems this to be one of the biggest threats facing average citizens and organizations. 

It’s important to have anti-virus software that protects your systems or encrypts your data because everyone is at risk of being attacked by a black hat hacker.

Script Kiddies

Script kiddies live up to their name and tend to be one of the least harmful hackers out there. However, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t take them seriously.

Script kiddies tend to stick to small-scale cyber attacks; this involves copying lines of code and using them to generate viruses. Usually, this is limited to the mild defacing of websites or denying service attacks.

Gray Hat Hackers

As with all things, nothing is black and white, and while you might think there’s a clear line between good and evil when it comes to hacking, we’re here to tell you that nothing is ever that simple! Gray hats are the prime example of what it means to be ‘on the fence.’

These hackers don’t typically hack for malicious reasons, but they also don’t try to help businesses either. Mostly, these hackers inflict little damage because they either hack for fun or to publicize information about an organization’s weak systems.

In some cases, gray hats will inform companies of their weaknesses, but the difference between white and gray hats lies within consent. While white hats break into systems at the host’s request, gray hats don’t wait for such clearance.

Hacktivists

Activism has also infiltrated the hacking world, with hackers now using social or political injustice as a motive. Hacktivists are also known as vigilante hackers and tend to target people and businesses that have allegedly harmed others.

Some prominent ways that these hackers operate are through DDoS attacks (these are distributed denial of service attacks). DDoS attacks flood websites with so much traffic that they shut down.

For many businesses, especially those that sell products online, this can cost a huge amount of money. Some other forms of hacktivism include spreading viruses and worms that distribute protest messaging to other systems, hacking social media accounts, defacing websites or stealing sensitive information and publishing this to the rest of the world.

Call Tech Masters For Commercial IT Support In Calgary Or Edmonton!

Are you worried about system vulnerabilities that could make stealing your data light work for hackers? Are you looking for an IT company in Edmonton or Calgary? Then contact Tech Masters today!

We offer end-to-end services that include providing you with robust security measures that stop any threats to your systems in their tracks. We do this with 24/7 monitoring and maintenance that check for any unusual activity. To find out how we can protect you, contact us today! We’re proud to serve any company that needs our assistance!

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