black hat

1 definition found

black hat - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  black hat
  
  
     1. [common among security specialists] A cracker, someone bent on
     breaking into the system you are protecting. Oppose the less comon
     white hat for an ally or friendly security specialist; the term gray
     hat is in occasional use for people with cracker skills operating
     within the law, e.g. in doing security evaluations. All three terms
     derive from the dress code of formulaic Westerns, in which bad guys
     wore black hats and good guys white ones.
  
     2. [spamfighters] `Black hat', `white hat', and `gray hat' are also
     used to denote the spam-friendliness of ISPs: a black hat ISP harbors
     spammers and doesn't terminate them; a white hat ISP terminates upon
     the first LART; and gray hat ISPs terminate only reluctantly and/or
     slowly. This has led to the concept of a hat check: someone
     considering a potential business relationship with an ISP or other
     provider will post a query to a NANA group, asking about the
     provider's hat color. The term albedo has also been used to describe
  a
     provider's spam-friendliness.