What Is a Hacker? Who Are Hackers? What Are Their Types?

The people who, by the first definition that comes to mind, capture most of our interest and spark excitement are ‘HACKERS’. With the development of today’s technology, who are the people that many refer to as ‘hackers’? What are the types of hackers? Now let’s try to answer these questions together.

Who Are Hackers?

Actually, the concept of “hacker” can seem a bit complicated to us. Nowadays, when we hear the word ‘hacker’, most of us think of destructive, malicious people. But once you dig a little deeper, you find out that these people aren’t only malicious individuals, and that there are actually many types of them.

first of all;

• According to the Turkish Language Association’s (TDK) online dictionary, the word Hacker is defined as “a person who has knowledge of computer and communication technologies, possesses above-standard skill in computer programming, and thus develops advanced software.”

of course, if we’re to add a bit of our own knowledge and thoughts to this topic;

• Hackers are people who breach, or determine how to breach, the security systems of computers and networks belonging to individuals, institutions, and organizations, and use this for their own benefit. Their goals can include accessing other people’s systems to steal private information or to damage those systems. Hacking is generally seen as one of the coolest things you can do at a computer. Looking back over the years, we see that the best hackers were young, typically between 18 and 30 years old. While this might give the impression that it’s something most of us could do, it’s actually not as easy as it seems. Hackers absolutely have to be talented people who enjoy the grind. It also helps to follow in the footsteps of the people known as masters of the craft. :)

What Are the Types of Hackers?

The main reason hackers are divided into different types is their goals and intentions. In general, there are black hat, white hat, and grey hat hackers. Besides these, there are also lamers and crackers, categorized according to their hacking ability and intent.

• White Hat Hackers:

We can say white hats are the most useful and well-intentioned people among the various types of hackers. In terms of skill and knowledge, all hackers are of the same caliber. Like other hackers, white hat hackers have the knowledge and skill to take over any system, network, or computer within seconds. However, these people use that knowledge and skill for good. In other words, white hat hackers are the hidden heroes who protect us from malicious individuals. These hacker groups are also known as Ethical Hackers.

• Black Hat Hackers:

When talking about white hats, we mentioned that all hackers are at the same level in terms of knowledge and skill. Black hat hackers, however, use this knowledge, skill, and their hacking methods to harm individuals, institutions, and organizations. They bypass security systems without authorization to carry out damaging activities such as information theft, fraud, terrorism, and deliberate destruction. In other words, when these people find a vulnerability in our computers or networks, they can cause enormous damage.

• Grey Hat Hackers:

As the name suggests, grey hat hackers can be thought of as a mix of black hat and white hat hackers. They breach, or figure out how to breach, the computers, phones, and systems of individuals, institutions, and organizations. With this information, they sometimes warn people, and sometimes harm them. In other words, depending on their own interests, they can be labeled as either well-intentioned or malicious.

• What Is a Lamer?

These are people who admire hackers and try to imitate them just for fun. They’re generally young kids. Even though they don’t have sufficient knowledge or skill, they use the few hacking tricks they know against vulnerable websites or individuals to cause harm.

• What Is a Cracker?

This is a type of black hat hacker. These are people who mainly engage in damaging activities aimed at cracking systems and software.

In this article, I’ve told you about the most well-known types of hackers. Of course, there are many more types of hackers. For now, it’s enough to know that these are the ones we should be aware of. See you in my next articles. Happy reading. :)