A black hat is a hacker that acts maliciously and illegally.
Hacking as a term is generally used to refer to breaking into some computer system.
Note that there is no ethical stance.
Hacking, in general, isnt necessarily good or bad.
However, it can be employed negatively.
Black hat hackers are the sort of people that do exactly that.
They identify security vulnerabilities in systems and exploit them.
This is always to the detriment of the legitimate system owner and generally benefits the hacker.
Contents
Motivations
The standard motivation of black hat hackers is personal gain.
Most hacking is performed to sell or otherwise use the data acquired.
Dark web black market sites allow black hat hackers and other neer-do-wells to sell illegal wares.
Data breaches are a classic source of username and password combinations that can sell quickly in such forums.
Payment card details also sell well.
In some cases, the hackers can gain money directly from the victim.
This can be through some scam.
For example, the victim could be convinced to invest money in a scheme that doesnt exist.
Another common scam is to provide a facilitation payment to receive some winnings.
Ransomware is another method of getting money from victims.
In some cases, rather than selling data to random people, hackers sell it back to the victim.
This assumes that the sale is exclusive, which relies on trusting the word of the untrustworthy.
Sometimes the motivation is simply revenge.
The classic example of this is the disgruntled systems administrator.
Typically, a sysadmin has a lot of access and knowledge of the systems theyre responsible for.
In a small number of cases, their motivation is just the challenge.
In this case, black hats are typically motivated by a person or company claiming something is unhackable.
They aim to prove the other person wrong and demonstrate their skills.
Black Hats in All but Name?
Hacktivists, for example, have some cause motivating them.
Realistically, hackers employed by intelligence agencies that attack other countries systems are technically also black hats.
From everyone elses perspective, theyre still black hats.
Conclusion
A black hat is a hacker that victimizes people and breaks the law.
The defining feature of their actions is that they negatively affect the victim in illegal ways.
Motivations arent necessarily considered for black hat hackers, but they are typically aimed at personal gain.
Black hats are responsible for data breaches, malware, ransomware, viruses, and DDoS attacks.
