#hacker #greyhat #hackers
We've discussed the black hat hacker as the bad guy, and we've discussed the white hat hacker as the good guy, but how can there be a grey? Aren't you either good OR bad? How can there possibly be a middle of the road? You're either breaking in for personal gain, or breaking in to help someone for money right?
This is the beauty of the grey hat, this is the hat not for the good guy, not for the bad guy, but for the good guy who does bad things with good intentions, a truly neutral party. How does it work and why?
The grey hat is quite a unique beast, as what he/she does is generally a good thing, they find a hole, they find a flaw, a problem, anything that needs patching for a big business, a small business, or an individual. Say we found a hole in your firewall, its good to know its there before a black hat with ill intent finds it. That is how these holes are found though. In a black hat manner, as their assistance is unsolicited and their hacking attempts are done for either fun, boredom, or practice. They alert the owner, tell them the problem, so what they did was good?
Not exactly, doing a bad thing to be a good guy doesn't exactly make you a white knight, since there exists no contract for the work done, it means the work is actually illegal, meaning yes you can actually face jail time for doing what seems to be a good thing. The law is broken, in an attempt to be a good guy. Making this area quite a grey space.
From personal experience I'll say this, if I'm going to hack a WiFi or a network for fun or for practice, I have no intentions of letting anyone know, remaining anonymous is the best friend of the hacker. Sure what I'm doing isn't exactly "white hat" it definitely tilts in favor of the "black hat" when it comes to just doing it for fun and practice, but if you do intend to help someone out, I suggest using a self destructing email address. Services such as 10minutemail.com/ will provide you with an email address for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes is up that email address goes away, keep your anonymity in tact, but giving someone a nice boost.
I'll go into some anonymity tools another day, but as for now, stay safe my goblins. Glad to be back.
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