Green hat hacker
(also hacker-in-training)
Green hat hacker definition
A green hat hacker is a hacker who is focused on learning and developing their skills. Whether they already have malicious intentions or are training to become a white-hat hacker, they can be dangerous. They may accidentally cause irreversible damage by trying out various cyberattack techniques and using all kinds of malware. New hackers are unaware of what consequences their actions might have or how to fix an attack gone wrong.
Green hat hacker vs. script kiddie
Script kiddies are also new to the world of hacking, but they operate differently from green hat hackers. While green hat hackers aim to learn new skills and develop their hacking and programming techniques, script kiddies simply want to buy all the tools they might need and use them without doing anything themselves. Script kiddies, for example, will use ransomware-as-a-service and similar models to hack their target. They would rather pay money and perform a straightforward attack than come up with new, secret, or creative ways to carry out their plans.