This is one of the most frequently asked ethical hacking interview questions for freshers in recent times. Based on the hacker's motivation and the legality of their conduct, they may be grouped into the following three categories:   Black Hat hackers are responsible for creating malware; they obtain illegal access to a system or network to disrupt its operations and steal important information. Black Hat hackers are also known as "shadow hackers."   White Hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers, typically hired by businesses or government organizations to uncover weaknesses in a system. White Hat hackers may also wear the term "white hat." As part of the penetration testing and vulnerability assessments, they have no intention of causing damage to the network or system; instead, their goal is to identify the vulnerabilities that exist there.   Grey hat hackers are a hybrid of white hat and black hat hackers; they investigate a system to discover its flaws secretly, without the system's owner's knowledge or consent. Their goal is to bring the deficiencies in the system to the owner's notice and to seek some recompense or incentive from the owner.