Posted by clueless newbie:
> What are all these hats I keep on hearing about?

Hacker, Cracker, Guru, Victim: White, Black, Grey, Red.

These are a few i know of

Hacker : a nice guy, who checks your system for vulnerbilities.. an angle..


Cracker : everyone has 2 sides.. a good one.. and an evil one... this guy is the evil side of a hacker

Guru : according to me a "teacher"..

i have a vague idea about the colors :)

My understanding is white and black are the same good guy/bad guy thing, white hack hackers are as Kunal described a hacker or do it for a living legally - black hat hackers are kunal's description of a cracker, gray is probably riding the fence, maybe a defacer who does it to show holes. Red I'm not sure but red often refers to classified systems (DoD anyhow)..just my understanding which is often wrong!

To elaborate, a "white hat" is a "good guy" who finds security holes and promptly distributed fixes for them; a "black hat" is a "bad guy" who finds security holes and uses them to cause damage, steal data (eg, credit cards), or extort money; a "grey hat" is someone who is knowledgeable in the field but doesn't actively search for security holes; and "Red hat"... well I think we know what that is. ;)