Black hat

1. Term that comes from bad guys who wore black hats and is used to describe a deceptive user, computer hacker, or an individual who attempts to break into a computer system or computer network with the intent to steal, destroy, or otherwise modify data on that computer system without permission.

2. Black hat is also a computer security conference held around the world to discus computer security issues, events, and inform individuals of security threats that may be present on their computer networks. Black hat consists of computer hackers, security experts, government officials, network administrators and other computer literate individuals.

• Additional information about the Black hat conference can be found at http://www.blackhat.com/.

Also see: COMDEX, DEF CON, Hacker, Security definitions, White hat