Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

Question: What’s the difference between white and black hat hackers?

Washington Subscriber

Answer: The difference between white and black hat hackers is that one is hacking for good (white hat), and one is hacking for malicious means (black hat). An easy way to remember is to think of old Hollywood movies where the villain rides into town wearing a black cowboy hat and the hero wears a white cowboy hat while saving the day.

In cybersecurity, black hat hackers are your malicious threat actors, who are trying to disrupt your systems, gain access to your network for financial gain, or unleash a ransomware attack to hold your organization hostage. On the flip side of the coin, white hat hackers are cybersecurity professionals who systematically attack your network to find the vulnerabilities and show you where to apply patches and shore up security holes, so cyberthreat actors can’t exploit those holes.

White hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers. Your healthcare organization can hire ethical hacking services to perform several tests, including penetration testing, to improve your organization’s security.

Additionally, your organization’s incident response team will receive practice in reacting to an “attack” that’s performed by white hat hackers, so they’re ready when an actual threat occurs.