Black hat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A black hat is the villain or bad guy, especially in a western movie in which such a character would wear a black hat in contrast to the hero's white hat. The phrase is often used figuratively, especially in computing slang, where it refers to a hacker that breaks into networks or computers, or creates computer viruses.[1]
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[edit] Black Hat Hacker
Black Hat Hackers (also called "crackers"), are hackers who specialize in unauthorized penetration. They may use computers to attack systems for profit, for fun, or for political motivations or as a part of a social cause. Such penetration often involves modification and/or destruction of data, and is done without authorization and hence they should not be confused with ethical hackers.
They also may distribute computer viruses, Internet worms, and deliver spam through the use of botnets. The term may also refer to hackers who crack software to remove protection methods: copy prevention, trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check (NO-CD) or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.
[edit] Search Engine Optimization
In recent years, the terms black hat and white hat have been applied to the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry. Black hat SEO tactics, also called spamdexing, attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion that is against the search engines' terms of service, whereas white hat methods are generally approved by the search engines.[2]
[edit] In Movies
Supposedly, a "Black hat" was someone in a western movie (usually a villain) who would wear a black hat in contrast to the hero's white hat. However, it has been noted that this trend may not have been as prevalent as it is now thought to have been[3], and several Westerns featured heroes who wore black hats, notably Have Gun Will Travel.
[edit] Notable actors who played black hat villains in movies
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2008. http://dictionary.oed.com. "black hat n. colloq. (orig. U.S.) (a) a villain or criminal, esp. one in a film or other work of fiction; a ‘bad guy’; (b) Computing slang a person who engages in illegal or malicious hacking, creates or distributes computer viruses, etc."
- ^ Andrew Goodman. "Search Engine Showdown: Black hats vs. White hats at SES". SearchEngineWatch. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3483941. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
- ^ "Dead Unicorn Trope". http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeadUnicornTrope.
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