According To The General Public, A Hacker Is Someone Who Uses His Knowledge And Intelligence To Access Information And Abuse.
In this article, we will introduce a type of hackers that the general public is familiar with and constantly in the news; they are called black hat hackers.
In general, a hacker understands computers, networks, and programming and uses his knowledge and available tools intelligently and creatively to achieve his goals and find a way to penetrate systems.
There are different types of hackers and what determines their type is their motivation and whether they are legal or illegal. The work of black hat hackers is to break into systems illegally and steal and misuse information or disrupt services.
The terms white hat and black hat come from Western movies in America because the heroes of those stories often wore white hats, and the villains wore black hats. Stay with us to learn more about black hats and their activities and motivations.
Who is called a black hat hacker?
A black hat hacker is someone who breaks into systems with malicious intent. It looks for and exploits vulnerabilities in computer systems or networks, often using malware and other hacking techniques to cause damage.
They have the necessary expertise and knowledge to infiltrate computer networks, exploit system vulnerabilities, and bypass security protocols. For example, it might release malware that destroys files or steals passwords and other personal information. So, black hat hackers are skilled but evil people who use their technical skills to steal information and extort money.
If they have high expertise and skills, some of these hackers are hired by criminal organizations, and these communications are sometimes made through the dark web. Many also earn money by developing malware individually.
You may wonder why the law does not stop these hackers; Well, black hat hackers often leave little evidence behind, use the computers of unsuspecting victims, and evade the law.
An example of a black hat hacker
Many black hat hackers are now using their knowledge as white hat hackers to deal with security threats. One of the most famous black hat hackers was Kevin Mitnick, who at one point was the most wanted cyber criminal in the world.
As a black hat hacker, he hacked over 40 major companies, including IBM, Motorola, and even the US National Defense Warning System. He was then arrested and spent some time in prison. After his release, he became a cyber security consultant using his hacking knowledge for ethical hacking.
Black hat hacker motivations
Often, black hat hackers hack to earn money and material benefits. Still, they can have different motivations, including gaining respect (others usually recognize hackers as intelligent people), feeling successful, feeling power over others, and revenge. And have personal goals, political goals, showing different views (social, political, religious, and moral), cyber espionage, or just curiosity and experiencing the excitement of cyber crimes.
Examples of illegal black hat hacker activities:
- Sending phishing emails or messages.
- Develop and sell malware such as viruses, worms, trojans, etc.
- Using cyber-attacks such as DDoS to slow down or disable websites.
- The exploitation of leaked databases and software vulnerabilities.
- Selling financial information and personal identity on the dark web.
- Execution of financial fraud and crimes related to identity theft.
- Carrying out dangerous cyber attacks such as brute force and man-in-the-middle attacks.
- Blackmail victims use ransomware and spyware to encrypt, lock, steal, modify and delete their data. (Black hat hackers usually extort money to restore access to files, systems, databases, or the entire device. They also threaten victims with confidential data, business documents, personal photos, videos, etc., if they don’t pay. The public will put