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Hacking is a complex activity that requires creativity, problem-solving skills and boldness to bypass security measures. It can be used to exploit technical or social weaknesses for a variety of reasons: monetary gain, information extraction, protesting a cause, political activism or simply for the thrill of it. This is what makes hackers so dangerous, as they can be influenced by such a wide range of motivations that can include self-gratification, malicious intent and even international conflict.

Hackers are known for their ferocity of purpose and desire to experiment with and push the limits of technology. The term “hacker” originated in the early 1960s at MIT, where members of the Tech Model Railroad Club would modify their IBM 704 computers to expand their capabilities. Hacking became widely practiced when computer hardware became cheaper and easier to operate, enabling almost anyone to become involved in the programmer subculture.

White hat hackers (also called ethical hackers) are employed to keep their employer’s information safe from malicious cybercriminals. Ethical hackers use vulnerability scanning, fuzzing and other methods to identify and remediate software vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by hackers with bad intentions.

Grey hat hackers are those who do not fit neatly into the black or white hat camps. They probe a company’s systems without permission and then notify the company of any security flaws that they can find—often for a fee. Some hackers have even used hacking as a form of activism, such as when the teenager Adrian Lamo exposed a Facebook security flaw in 2013 that allowed him to post on Mark Zuckerberg’s private wall.