Black Hat Hacker vs White Hat Hacker: What Do They Do?

Hacker vs Ethical Hacker may sound like a spaghetti western or a Parisian fashion show. Still, it makes a clever way for distinguishing between criminals who circumvent computer systems for or wicket purposes and computer professionals who try to stop them. There are also grey hat hackers who commit illegal computer actions but generally do so without any malicious intent. We shall leave them to play their dangerous game alone for now and focus on black and white hat hackers.

Black Hat Hacker vs White Hat Hacker

This table will help us in seeing the difference between black hat hacker and white hat hacker:

What Is a Black Hat Hacker and What do They do?

A black hat hacker is a skilled computer network expert who has learned how to bypass security protocols. He or she could be motivated by one or several reasons, including personal or financial gain, protesting a social cause, surveillance, or simply the thrill of cybercrime. These hackers device the malware, Trojan horses, ransomware, and viruses that could affect our computer and cause headaches for individual users and companies. Black hat hackers cover students looking to change their rankings to foreign criminals who extract financial reports from leading firms.

There are some of the operations usually involving black hat hackers:

1. Write Malware and Malicious Other Code

Malware means malicious software. Some of the most frequently used malware types are:

1. Viruses
2. Trojan horses
3. Computer worms
4. Botnets
5. Rootkits

Hackers build and spread malware for undermining the protection status of a system or computer.

2. Exploit the Security Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities mean bugs that hackers use as an entry point in applications or vulnerable places in IT systems. But did we know that lists of popular vulnerabilities in the public domain are currently available? A list of popular security vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities of MITRE is one such illustration.

3. Conduct Social Engineering Scams

Black hat hackers let the people we know exploit false social media accounts for disclosing private, personal or financial details that they abuse for fraudulent purposes. They can also hack social media accounts and send malware-containing links or attachments to contacts of the victim.

4. Blackmail Victims Using Ransomware and Spyware

Black hat hackers implant the spyware in their target computers. They use ransomware to encrypt important information or lock devices and then request the ransom to give back access. Or spyware can be used to track the activities of the targets. This form of malware can take screenshots of user behavior or provide remote viewing/access to the hacker’s computer screens.

5. Carry Out Political Agendas

Sometimes, the information is leaked to the media to contribute to civil instability or to question key government leaders.

6. Sell Your Sensitive or Confidential Data

It is likely to use this data ourselves or sell it to our rivals or other cybercriminals.

What Is a White Hat Hacker and What do They do?

White hat hacker is the Black hat nemesis. This hacker tries to stop cybercriminals before committing a crime by using their powers to find weak points in a company’s digital security wall. White hat hackers can use many of the same tools used by a Black hat hacker, but they do it for good. Their work incorporates penetration testing, evaluating existing security systems, and accessing vulnerability. Majority of the white hat hackers have earned certified ethical hacker designation. So now we know what white hat hackers are, let’s discover some of the activities white hat hackers are generally involved with:

1. Penetration Testing

While penetration testing, hackers search for glitches or security flaws by the operating system, software, network, or web application. Nevertheless, white hats do so with the approval of the user, unlike black hat hackers. Ethical hackers attempt to crack all entry points or deploy various cyber threats without disrupting the device to identify compromised security locations. The black hat hackers will use these vulnerabilities in their efforts to find protection vulnerabilities. White Hat hackers manually or with different methods and applications perform penetration scanning (pen testing).

2. Develop Security Products

Any hackers are programmers who build security products such as anti-viruses, anti-malware, anti-spyware, firewalls, browser security plugins, honeypots, and data filters. White hat hackers are now developing website techniques and products to detect and counter cyber threats.

3. Help Companies Be Compliant

In actions like HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, etc., organizations processing confidential data for consumers have to stick to protection guidelines. White hat hackers guarantee that the businesses conform to the new business regulations and safety requirements. It allows companies to preserve and increase the trust of their clients and to escape fines.

4. Train Cybersecurity Users

White hat hackers are mostly students or analysts teaching consumers how cyber threats can be detected and avoided. Also, companies and organizations can prepare contingency plans in cases of crisis.

Conclusion

Concluding the article black hat hacker vs white hat hacker we can say that hackers could be horrible criminals or planet-saving superheroes! If we look from a different viewpoint, black hat hackers challenge cybersecurity industries to build and pursue new technology strategies continuously. Difference between black hat hacker and white hat hacker states that not every guy is bad – some of the most popular hackers have turned into hackers with white hats!