black hat
noun
1Used in reference to a bad person, especially a villain or criminal in a film, novel, or play: we are the good guys—the black hats lost...
- We already have so many regular deputies that we don't really need a posse to actually get rid of the black hats.
- If we rely only on the ballot box to hold up our side of the negotiation, then the black hats will go around us and use tools like the courts to up the price of democracy.
- I argued that he's not evil, he's just the bad guy in the black hat, who you see coming a million miles away.
1.1 Computing, informal A person who hacks into a computer network with malicious or criminal intent: black hats have a history of disassembling source code and looking for lapses...
- According to security clearing house CERT, an exploit based on the vulnerability is yet to be used by black hats.
- The fact is, of course, that the computing world's black hat brigade don't give a monkey's what platform you're using.
- 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.
Origin
1950s: from the colour of the hat traditionally worn by the bad character in westerns. Compare with white hat.
- potato eye
- potato failure
- potato famine
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- potato flake
- potato fly
- potato fungus
- potato head
- potato-headed
- potato hook
- potato-ivory
- potato latke
- potato leafhopper
- potatoless
- potato loaf
- potato masher
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- potato-nose
- potato oats
- potato onion
- potato pancake