Penetration Tester - How to Define

The older readers among our audience might remember them: The painfully long discussions on online forums and usenet groups regarding the definition of a hacker. The difference to the so-called cracker was just as important as the debate, if self-proclaimed hackers have forfeited the right to the label by assigning it to themselves and are to be considered lamers. Generally, there is a lot of lingo in the hacker and infosec realm that leaves room for interpretation: The terms whitehat, blackhat and greyhat were often used to identify the ethical alignment of a person. But especially with the third term, the definition was often lost in more than fifty shades of grey of moral ambiguity.
This paper was written in 2017 as part of a research project at scip AG, Switzerland. It was initially published online at https://www.scip.ch/en/?labs.20170810 and is available in English and German. Providing our clients with innovative research for the information technology of the future is an essential part of our company culture.