White Hat

| Ethics | Hactivisme | White | Black | Grey | Blue | Methods | Script Kiddie | Computer |

A white hat is the hero or good guy, especially in computing slang, where it refers to an ethical hacker that focuses on securing and protecting IT systems.^[1] Such people are employed by computer security companies where these professionals are sometimes called sneakers.^{[citation needed]} Groups of these people are often called tiger teams.^{[2][citation needed]}

Other examples would be a western movie in which such a character would wear a white hat in contrast to the villain's black hat. Examples of such characters are Red Ryder, Tom Mix and The Lone Ranger.

In the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry a white hat signifies an honorable degree which has been bestowed upon a member. It is also known as the 33rd degree.

In recent years the terms white hat and black 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.^{[citation needed]}

In "The Wish," the ninth episode of season 3 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cordelia Chase is saved by the "White Hats," a group of human vampire-fighters led by Giles and including Oz and Larry.

| Ethics | Hactivisme | White | Black | Grey | Blue | Methods | Script Kiddie | Computer |