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Illegal activities done with good intention (and usually outcome) is what the term greyhat is for. It would be fair to argue that's the correct term here for go
by ninjanomnom 5y ago
Illegal activities done with good intention (and usually outcome) is what the term greyhat is for. It would be fair to argue that's the correct term here for government agency hackers but personally I don't have strong enough stance on the subject to say either way.
- sudosysgen 5y agoWould Russia hacking a US election for example count as greyhat?
- ninjanomnom 5y agoUnless you truly believe that interfering with the results of a free election is for the better of the participants of that election, no that's a black hat activity. There's nuance here since you have to think about perspective, no one is a villain in their own eyes, but personally I find the most useful perspective for the kind of hat to be from the victim.
- furyg3 5y agoThe examples of the 'good guy' spies carrying out 'bad intention' activities are legion, and so the conclusion that trusting any covert intelligence organization is a good idea is extremely flawed.
- ninjanomnom 5y agoI was mostly responding to this. > They are definitely black hats. There's a fair argument to be made that they're grey hat. On the whole though I agree with you and you shouldn't give blanket trust to people performing these kinds of activities. I would just assign a bit different value to a black hat activity (illegal and/or harmful and only beneficial by accident if at all) vs grey hat activity (illegal and potentially harmful but attempting to be beneficial)