white hat
Sign in to saveAlso known as white hat hacker, white-hat hacker, ethical hacker, whitehat
computer hacker who hacks ethically
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- profession
- Image
- Dr. Dorothy E. Denning DA-SD-03-07780.jpg
- Field of occupation
- computer security
Show 1 more fact
- opposite of
- black hat
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A white hat (or a white-hat hacker, a whitehat) is an ethical security hacker. Under the owner's consent, white-hat hackers deliberately hack software or system with the aim of identifying any vulnerabilities or security issues it has, helping to reinforce it from black hat hackers.
The white hat is contrasted with the black hat, a malicious hacker; this definitional dichotomy comes from Western films, where heroic and antagonistic cowboys might traditionally wear a white and a black hat, respectively. There is a third kind of hacker known as a grey hat who hacks with good intentions but at times without permission or proper consent.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “white hat” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.