Technically Speaking
January 2016
By Gopal Gupta
New to the world of cyber security? Then you must be struggling to
understand the difference between various types of security teams.
You must have heard the term hackers (also called crackers), portrayed in
movies as the geek surrounded by systems as big as 60's IBM but as fast
as quantum computers working on Matrix type command console and
hacking any system within minutes, sometimes in seconds if it's a climax
scene or there is a Gun to his or his GF's head (if it is Bollywood,
it would be his mother's head).
Understandably, the reality is far less dramatic. However, the
impact hackers create is far reaching. Be it financial, political,
national security, reputational (personal, national or of
organization) etc. So, when somebody decides to tread into the
highly troubled waters (but interesting) of security, (s) he is
usually disappointed to hear their mentor say: “No, you can't
hack Gmail or Facebook of somebody, it is too tough”
(Disclaimer: there is no place for impossible word in cyber
security's dictionary, no matter how many patches you apply).
But, before you raise your expectations too high, first let's
understand the difference between different categories:
Black hat hackers: A "black hat" hacker is a hacker who
"violates computer security for little reason beyond
maliciousness or for personal gain" (Moore, 2005). The one
mentioned in the beginning - the one portrayed in movies. In
layman terms, you can call them the bad guys of hacking
performing unauthorized hacking for some kind of gain. They
usually keep their findings to themselves and sell the exploits in
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