The term “hacker” used to refer to an individual with an extraordinary talent for finding creative and clever means to address an issue in a programming language or to achieve some other mundane goal. Now it primarily means someone who circumvents computer and network security in order to gain unauthorized access and control of third-party systems and resources.

Just as a locksmith and a cat burglar use the same tools and often share a similar skill set, the cyber-security industry coined several terms in order to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. Those terms are:

White hat hacker: IT security expert, ethical hacker and penetration tester.