For those who are relatively new to the world of hacking there are three categories of hackers. White hat hackers are exactly what you would expect them to be. White hat hacking would be performing pen testing for a company in order to help improve their security. Contrary to what media would have you believe, this is the most common type of hacker. On the opposite side of the spectrum he have the black hat hacker, again this is exactly what you would expect. Black hat hackers are the individuals that steal credit card info, infect peoples computers with viruses, steal and sell peoples personal data, etc. etc. These are the people that the news warns you about, The people that can (and will) destroy your life if you let them. Then there are the grey hat hackers. Grey hat hacking is a semi complicated category, because it covers anyone that lies between the two extremes. A pretty standard definition however is someone that hacks something illegally but not for self gain. So an example of this would be Jeremy Hammond, and the other individuals involved in the stratfor hacks. While what they did was illegal, we can't necessarily say that it was a horrible bad thing for them to do. They did it for the greater good of the country, unfortunately what they did was a crime however.
There you have it, that is a brief definition of the three categories of hackers. If you enjoyed this post please upvote and follow.