The practice of locating vulnerabilities and weaknesses in information systems and computers by duplicating the actions and intent of malicious hackers who seek to bypass security and search for gaps in systems that can be exploited.
A white hat (or a white-hat hacker, a whitehat) is an ethical security hacker. Ethical hacking is a term meant to imply a broader category than just penetration testing. Under the owner's consent, white-hat hackers aim to identify any vulnerabilities or security issues the current system has. The white hat is contrasted with the black hat, a malicious hacker; this definitional dichotomy comes from Western films, where heroic and antagonistic cowboys might traditionally wear a white and a black hat, respectively. There is a third kind of hacker known as a grey hat who hacks with good intentions but at times without permission.
White-hat hackers may also work in teams called "sneakers and/or hacker clubs", red teams, or tiger teams.
