Hacker Color Code

[Evelina Browder]

Thereare three well-known types of hackers in the world of information security: black hats, white hats and grey hats. These colored hat descriptions were born as hackers tried to differentiate themselves and separate the good hackers from the bad. The roots of the black and white hat labels are drawn from Western movies, where protagonists wore white hats and antagonists wore black hats.

Today, the hacker hat rainbow is broadening. While the terms are not as well known or well used, newer hat colors describe other hacker traits. From green to red to blue, time will tell if these nicknames take hold.

A black hat hacker is someone who maliciously searches for and exploits vulnerabilities in computer systems or networks, often using malware and other hacking techniques to do harm. These stereotypical hackers often break laws as part of their hacking exploits, infiltrating victims' networks for monetary gain, to steal or destroy data, to disrupt systems, to conduct cyberespionage or just to have fun.

On the other end of the spectrum, a white hat hacker is a security specialist hired to find vulnerabilities in software, hardware and networks that black hats may find and target. Unlike black hats, white hats only hack networks when legally permitted to do so. Also known as ethical hackers, white hats disclose all vulnerabilities to their employer. White hats will also disclose the vulnerability to the vendor whose hardware or software is affected so it may patch other customers' systems. White hat hacking techniques include penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.

Because things are never black and white, enter the grey hat hacker. A fusion of black and white, grey hats exploit security vulnerabilities without malicious intent, like white hats, but may use illegal methods to find flaws. They may even release the vulnerabilities to the public or sell details about them for a profit like a black hat would. Grey hat hackers also often hack without the target's permission or knowledge. The grey hat description is also used to categorize hackers who may, at one stage in life, have broken the law in their hacking activities but have since made the move to become a more ethical, white hat hacker.

A green hat hacker isn't necessarily Irish -- though some may be. Rather, a green hat describes hacker wannabes who, though they lack technical hacking skills and education, are eager to learn the tricks of the trade.

In Microsoft's world, blue hats acts much like white hats: They are employed by the company to find vulnerabilities in unreleased products. Microsoft's invite-only BlueHat conference was established to facilitate communications between hackers and company engineers.

In some circles, a blue hat is defined as a hacker seeking revenge. Blue hat hackers are also wannabe hackers like green hats, but vengeance is blue hat hackers' only motivation -- they have no desire to hone their hacking skills.

A red hat hacker could refer to someone who targets Linux systems. However, red hats have been characterized as vigilantes. Like white hats, red hats seek to disarm black hats, but the two groups' methodologies are significantly different. Rather than hand a black hat over to the authorities, red hats will launch aggressive attacks against them to bring them down, often destroying the black hat's computer and resources.

Windows Task Manager has evolved into a reasonably good utility. It offers a lot of information about what your computer is doing at any particular moment; the programs running, the load on the processor, and network activity are displayed.

There are limits to what Windows Task Manager can do for you however. If you're interested in the real nitty-gritty details of your computer's inner workings you'll need something better, stronger, faster - something like Process Hacker.

Processes is the tab that will be open first by default. Like the Windows Task Manager, this tab of Process Hacker shows all of the programs and applications that are currently running on your computer. This includes programs that are running in the foreground and those that are running in the background.

There are a couple of features here that make Process Hacker more useful than Windows Task Manager. The information that appears in Process Hacker is organized into trees (you have to enable Show All Processes for this to display) that show which currently open processes rely on each other.

For example, closing explorer.exe in Windows typically causes a number of other programs to also shut down and restart. These programs are listed under explorer.exe in Process Hacker, so you know at a glance that shutting down explorer.exe would probably cause these programs to terminate.

Process Hacker also color-codes processes. The color-code chart can be found by going to Hacker --> Options --> Highlighting. This lets you quickly determine if a program is a system process, a prioritized program, etc. That information can be useful when hunting down background programs that aren't essential.

The Service tab in Process Hacker shows you all of the different Windows services (most of them are drivers) that are on your computer. It is extremely detailed and picks up on information that Windows Task Manager will not show. Process Hacker also provides useful information about the current state of the service. The information to the right details the type of service (driver or process) current state of the service (running or stopped) and how the service is set to start (boot, demand or automatic).

There is so much service information in Process Hacker that, to be frank, it can be bewildering even for a generally tech-savvy computer user. I suggest sorting the Service tab by Running/Stopped before delving into it deeply, as the services that are running are usually the most important.

Perhaps the clearest advantage Process Hacker has over Windows Task Manager can be found in the Network tab. Windows Task Manager has a Network tab as well, of course, but it only shows overall network utilization.

Process Hacker goes far deeper. Instead of showing overall network utilization it provides in-depth information about the network connections your computer currently has opened, the IP addresses involved, and the protocol being used. The tab - like all tabs - updates in real-time, and Process Hacker highlights connections that are brand new or recently terminated.

One of my favorite features in Process Hacker is the ability to search for a process by its name. Let's say, for example, that for some reason I want to find eveything on my computer related to running Dropbox. I can do this by going to Hacker --> Find Handles and DLLs and then typing in Dropbox. All the processes related to it will pop up!

Process Hacker can also find and terminate processes that are trying to hide on your computer, such as Trojans or Rootkit software. You can access this utility by clickng on Tools --> Hidden Processes. Any hidden processes active are highlighted in red, and you can then select them and attempt to terminate them. This isn't exactly a security suite, and I don't recommend it as your sole means of combating malware, but it can be handy.

Finally, Process Hacker includes graphs like Windows Task Manager. They can be accessed by clicking on View ---> System Information. This is one area where Windows Task Manager is actually better, because the graphs are larger and clearer.

Process Hacker is a great program, and far more capable than Windows Task Manager. It can be confusing to use because of the level of detail it provides, so be prepared to deal with a learning curve if you're not already well versed on what "processes" and "services" do. Once you get the hang of things however, you'll find that Process Hacker is better than Windows Task Manager in almost every way.

Schmartboard Wire Jumper Hacker Kits contain 42 pieces of 1.0" heat shrink tubes and a row of extra-long headers. They can be used for modifying jumpers you have in hand to the functionality that you need immediately. Examples of what you can use them for: change a female jumper into a male jumper; connect female jumpers together to create longer jumpers; color code jumpers to differentiate signals; splice bare wires together;... Let us know your ideas so that we can add them.

As entrepreneurs and high performers, we all know the familiar feeling of juggling a million tasks at once. Between meetings, deadlines, and personal commitments, our calendars can often feel overflowing with chaos.

Think of it as adding a visual layer to your schedule, making it easier to see priorities at a glance. This helps you stay on track, spot potential conflicts, and maximize your time. Color-coding is like giving your brain a superpower to manage your schedule effectively.

And so, we all have a limited amount of personal resources, including a finite amount of time in the day, week, quarter, year, etc. Thus, you can color code your personal, digital, or Google calendar as a visual way of organizing your time in the short-term.

The color-code calendar setup can also help us separate different parts of our life from one another. Too much of one color for a specific week or the day ahead can indicate that we will probably get overwhelmed.

In Getting Things Done, David Allen tells us that tasks occupy space in our heads. Thus, you should get rid of this clutter from your head and put it in its designated place. He recommends using the to-do list to organize tentative tasks and the calendar to organize your time-specific appointments.

You can remove commitments from your mind, figure out how much time you have, and lock in periods with purpose. If working out or family time is important to your life, then you should schedule it so it gets done.

Also, you can identify the things and people that could prevent your progress and challenge your boundaries. That way, you can use your schedule to tell others what your priorities are and how you want them to behave toward you.

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