grey hat

A grey hat (greyhat or gray hat) is a term used in computer security with a range of definitions and is derived from the concepts of "white hat" and "black hat" hackers. The term was first used in print in the late 1990s by the hacker group L0pht in a 1999 interview with The New York Times to describe their hacking activities. The same article describes several members as black hat hackers and a third party describes L0pht as white-hat hackers.