The term hacker has been misconstrued over the years. A hacker is not generally one who breaks into systems. The original term of hacker by definition refers one who is clever or an expert programmer. A White hat hacker uses their abilities for good; a White hat is like a police officer. A Black hat hacker used their ability for bad; a Black hat is like a crook. A Grey hat hacker is neither a white hat nor a black hat; a Grey hat is like a dirty police officer.
Maintaining the three basic characteristics of information known as the CIA, confidentiality, integrity, and availability, is the goal of the information security systems administrator. White hat hacking is interested in developing protection against intrusion and securing the information. Grey hat hacking also plays an important part in the security industry. Even though their allegiance to the white hats or black hats remain unclear, the Grey hats assist the White hats in finding flaws in software and networks before the black hats can find an exploit. However, the Grey hats are trespassers and customarily want something in return for their findings of their unauthorized vulnerability scans.
Grey hat hackers may not be malicious in their intents to find vulnerabilities in systems without the owner’s permissions; nevertheless, searching for said vulnerabilities without permission is unethical. One should always have permission to preform security scans upon a network or website beforehand.