Green hat hackers focus squarely on developing their hacking skills and learning new methods. Unlike gray hat hackers, it is difficult to tell whether they are good or evil. Since they always try new things, tweaking and exploiting, their actions can inadvertently lead to a cybersecurity threat.
The word green here refers to inexperienced or new, and as such, the hacker may be unaware of certain rules and consequences. They may also be sorely ignorant of the required fixes for when something goes wrong as a result of their actions.
Green hat hacker vs. script kiddie
Aside from the green hat hacker, there is another type of novice hacker: the script kiddie. These individuals function differently from green hat hackers. While green hat hackers are interested in learning and growing through practice, script kiddies simply identify all the necessary hacking tools and purchase them.
The script kiddie has no intention of developing hacking skills. Hackers who purchase specific tools for an attack instead of devising their own techniques to improve on existing techniques are often script kiddies.
