Top Seven Types of Hackers
You hear about leaks and hacks on a daily basis, but most of the times the identity of the people involved in these events remain hidden from the society. Every time there is a cyber-incident, the media releases a lot of information about the damages, but you rarely get much about the hackers themselves. Sometimes names of a mysterious group such as ‘Anonymous’ or ‘Fancy Bear’ are mentioned but nothing else about the people behind the hack. There are a million reasons why journalists usually do not share their sources, but this leaves us with questions about who they are. Often hackers end up portrayed negatively in the media. Even though that this is sometimes correct, it depends on the type of hacker. Knowing how to do something illegal does not mean that you necessarily do it, or that you cannot use your skills in a way that could benefit your government or the society. This is why we’ve decided to put a list of top seven types of hackers. Next time you hear the news; you will know that at least one of these characters have been involved.
Good Guys
These are the type of people who sometimes have regular day jobs and use their hacking skills to find security holes in business systems. Most of the times they are not after financial reward. They do it because they can and because they care about the people who use these vulnerable services. Multiple hacker organizations claim to be the good guys such as the German Chaos Computer Club (CCC). Groups such as CCC have their issues, but it is not a secret they have done some admiring things in the past.
Consultants
These are the type of individuals that look for exploits, and then offer their services to companies who need them. Technically they do not do anything illegal because they do not blackmail or exploit the flaws in the system. They just notify companies that things could be more secure if they get hired. They are no good, but they are not bad either, they are businessmen. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time have started as hackers.
Bad Guys
Not everyone is ready to obey the laws. The evil hackers are the ones who do not have the patience or the abilities to negotiate with businesses and are known to take advantage of system flaws. These are the type of people whose primary purpose in life is to steal your sensitive information and ruin your life. They are money driven and of questionable morals. They are in it for the money and have no remorse to blackmail or scam anyone who crosses their path. Very often they think they are above the others… until they get caught.
Hacktivists
They are the type of hackers who often make it to the news. They break the law to gain information that will help them support a certain cause. Sometimes they think what they do is right, but most of the times it isn’t helping their cause at all. They consider themselves the Robin Hood of modern society. Very often they are not familiar with the whole picture and end up causing chaos by exposing truths that can be hurtful for the regular people – the very same people they are trying to protect. Anonymous is an excellent example of such group.
State Sponsored
To say the least, cyber warfare is not precisely regulated. State sponsored groups have been known to interfere in foreign elections. Each advanced country in the world has its army of hackers that work for the government, and sometimes the same folks are assigned to interfere with other nations. Of course, governments openly deny interference, but there is plenty of proof confirming these cyber armies exist to not only protect country’s citizens but also to manipulate other countries and gather intelligence for the government that sponsors them.
Imposters
These are the type of hackers with average IT knowledge who go in chat rooms and threaten regular folks for no apparent reason. The imposters are sometimes able to achieve something as significant as stealing their neighbors’ WiFi password, and they cannot stop talking about it to their friends. And to the media, as these are the type of people that we see on morning shows acting as hackers. Imposters feed on the public attention and most of the times they are harmless for the society as in reality, are not who they claim to be.
Incompetent Hackers
They have a special place in our hearts. They are the ones who have no idea what they are doing and leave digital traces everywhere they go. Most of the times you can get the tracks of such hackers only by doing a google search. Sometimes they manage to survive and move up the hierarchy but usually these are the guys who we often see in the news being jailed for cyber crimes.
Bonus: Broke Hackers
They are so successful in pulling off heists that they start being irresponsible. Until that one day when they get hacked themselves. They are similar to the incompetent hackers but are much smarter. However, they are not smart enough to keep their hard-stolen money away from other hungry cyber criminals. Filing a complaint with the police is not an option when someone steals your vast amounts of stolen digital currency.
There are all sorts of hackers out there and the more you learn about them, the more you realize that they are regular people like you. Next time you walk in Target; it is possible you will walk past a Bitcoin millionaire with questionable past. Or the next client you work with may be one of WikiLeaks’ primary sources. You never really know because real hackers live in mystery.
You have to make sure you are always protected and add an extra layer of security. Don’t tempt the good hackers and don’t fall victim to the bad ones. Very often the choice is yours because if you are not an easy target, hackers will exclude you from their target lists. They would rather move on to an easier target that has less protection.