What is a gray hat?

A gray hat is a specialist in computer security that acts as a hacker in an effort to penetrate into security of a particular system or network. This type of hacker is usually someone who does not perform this activity in an effort to be harmful, but instead uses these attacks as research. If the error is found in network security, then this type of hacker usually informs the owner of this network or system to instruct them about the nature of the error. However, the gray hat is not entitled to try to penetrate the system, so its activities can be illegal. All three terms apply to the type of hacker, persons who use computer programs and different methods to try to circumvent the security of the network or computer system. A white hat is a hacker employed by a company or organization and justified to try to penetrate the group for finding shortcomings or security risks. Unlike this, a black hacker is someone who penetrates systems without authorization and with a harmful intention.

A gray hat is a hacker that falls somewhere between the two groups. This means that it usually penetrates into systems to which it is not authorized to access, which makes such hackering potentially illegal. If the hacker of the gray hat finds a security defect or a similar problem, then usually alerts a company or organization of this defect to improve security. The exact way in which the hacker warns the group

This type of notification usually leads to the hacker of the gray hat to select in the spectrum of complete publication and private use. Complete publication concerns the announcement of the general publici security defect, including potential hackers and the company that has a defect. Unlike this, private use would include hackers of black hats to find a defect, and then would not use it to use information for private, often harmful purposes instead. The gray hacker hat usually decidesact between the two options by notifying the organization of shortcomings that it has before it releases information about the general public.