Whitehats

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to ethical hackers who test and secure systems against security breaches
2. Usually used to describe individuals who work to protect networks from malicious attacks while acting legally
3. It can also denote cybersecurity professionals who identify vulnerabilities in software or networks to prevent exploits

Etymology: "Whitehats" is simply the plural of "whitehat," and the singular is the more revealing form. A whitehat is a computer security expert who tests systems for weaknesses in order to fix them, in contrast to the attackers who exploit those weaknesses. The colour comes from the old practice of marking heroes and villains by their hats in Western films, where the good characters wore white and the outlaws wore black. Security writers adopted that visual shorthand, and "blackhat" for the malicious counterpart followed the same logic.

Synonyms: ethical hackers, good hackers

Antonyms: blackhats