The term ‘hacking’ generally has a negative philosophy as many people assume that all hackers are bad, and they treat them with suspicion in the belief they have criminal intentions.
To most people, though, the term ‘hacker’ is associated with just one thing: Cybercriminals who gain unauthorized access to a computer system, or elements of it, for malicious purposes.
The way that hackers are depicted in Society and by the security industry itself has contributed to the word “hacker” becoming synonymous with “criminal.” The stereotypes don’t apply to most hackers in the security profession.
A Hacker is a type of person, who has the knowledge, and most of the time that knowledge, is self-taught and not like that tradition of studying in Universities for Cyber Security.
The mindset behind Offensive Security is completely different than those who come from the defensive side, they do not study the same things, and do not know the same things, let’s say they enjoy the intellectual challenge of using computers, networking, or other skills to overcome a technical problem.
Hats, are a way that you could classify them, but not in reality because when you are equipped and train for such knowledge, all it comes down to is your motive if you will ethically do this. To get illegal money, and be a criminal, or still do it, but get paid and be ethical. Hacking is an activity, and what separates any activity from crime is, very often, permission.
Which brings us to: A hacker is not necessarily a criminal.
They play a major role in both society and industry since they enable organizations to address the vulnerability in current and future products released to the public.
The cost of being a victim of cybercrime is so high that a growing number of organizations are now paying big money to hackers who can identify and exclusively share with them security vulnerabilities.
Professional hackers work to keep people safe by finding security vulnerabilities before criminals do.
It is important to understand, though, that not all hackers are bad. Indeed, many hackers are helping to protect us from the untrustworthy ones.
