Learn to Use your Computer

Hackers come in all kinds, and it is difficult to classify them. However, over the years, a distinction has developed that tries to separate the "good hackers" from the "bad hackers." Hackers with benign intentions are referred to as the white hats, and hackers with sinister intentions are referred to as the black hats -- evoking images of the Mad magazine Spy vs. Spy comic strip. The black hats are what we commonly think of when we refer to hackers. These are the people who break into other people's computers, either to access data illegitimately or to joyride. The white hats, on the other hand, are the ones who study security vulnerabilities in order to learn how to protect computer systems. These white-hat hackers may be security professionals at corporations and government agencies who stay up-to-date on security vulnerabilities. White hats study hacking techniques to keep hackers out of computer systems. While most white-hat hackers have the same desire to find new security vulnerabilities that black-hat hackers have, white hats use the knowledge that they gain to protect computer systems, not to attack them. Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to distinguish a black hat from a white hat; in fact, it looks gray. For example, what color is the hat of a hacker who destroys another hacker's data in order to protect the innocent?