Grey hat

In the computer security community, a grey hat is a skilled Hacker who sometimes acts legally and in good will and sometimes not. They are a hybrid between white hat and black hat hackers. They hack for no personal gain and do not have malicious intentions, but commit crimes.

For example, attacking corporate businesses with unethical practices could be regarded as highly unethical and yet would normally be tagged with the title of black hat activity. However, to a grey hat, it may not appear bad even though it is against that local law. So instead of tagging it black hat, it is a grey hat hack. A person who breaks into a computer system and simply plants his flag while doing no damage, is usually classified as a grey hat.

=See also=

*White hat *Black hat *Hacker ethic *Hacktivism