white hat
noun
1Used in reference to a good or moral person, especially the hero in a film, novel, or play: [as modifier]: the two central characters are a cop and a gangster, but don’t expect a simple black-hat/white-hat duality...
- This isn't an airport novel with white hats and black hats, moral certitude and a nice conclusive ending.
- The San Francisco clothing company is widely admired as a ‘white hat’ among multinationals.
- Characterization is accepted, not elaborated upon and the result is a film filled only with archetypes, black hats, and white hats.
1.1 Computing, informal A person who hacks into a computer network in order to test or evaluate its security systems: while security dudes tend to speak in terms of black or white hats, it seems to me that nearly all hats are in varying shades of grey...
- If they do this with full knowledge and authorization of the affected company, they are white hats; if they criminally exploit the vulnerabilities, they are black hats.
- Businesses with trade secret sensitivities might want to consider less formal protection strategies such as white hat hackers.
- But while it's easy for hackers to detect, it's also easy to fix - and there are more white hats than black.
Origin
1950s: from the colour of the hat traditionally worn by the good character in westerns. Compare with black hat.