text: White hat An ethical security hacker is referred to as a white hat or white hat hacker. The term "ethical hacking" is meant to mean more than just penetration testing. White hat hackers aim to discover any flaws in the current system with the owner's permission. Many organizations engage white hat hackers to enhance their network security through activities such as vulnerability assessments. Their primary objective is to assist the organization. While a black hat will illegally exploit a vulnerability or instruct others on how to do so, a white hat hacker will only exploit it with permission and will not reveal its existence until it has been fixed. Teams known as "sneakers and/or hacker clubs," "red teams," or "tiger teams" are also common among white-hat hackers.
  Grey hat
  A grey hat is a hacker who typically does not have malicious intent but often violates laws or common ethical standards. A vulnerability will not be illegally exploited by a grey hat, nor will it instruct others on how to do so; however, the grey hat may trade this information for personal gain. A special group of gray hats are hacktivists, who hack to promote social change.
  The ideas of "white hat" and "black hat" hackers led to the use of the term "grey hat" at the end of the 1990s.
  Another difference between these types of hackers is how they find vulnerabilities. The black hat will break into any system or network to uncover sensitive information for personal gain, whereas the white hat does so at the request of their employer or with explicit permission to determine how secure it is against hackers. The grey hat typically possesses the white hat's skills and intentions and the black hat's disregard for permission or laws. A grey hat hacker might request organizations for voluntary compensation for their activities.