Do you think most people who enjoy black hat hacking also want to become white hat hackers?

[cloverblanket]

Hi everyone! Sorry I only speak English (and some French) so I have been translating the posts on this forum as I am really interested in the discussions here. I just wanted to post my own question, I'm just curious how many people who enjoy black hat hacking actually hope to one day work in infosec or something where they can use their skills legitimately (I mean if they don't already, since I'm sure some people wear both hats). Any thoughts?

 

[Nytro]

Hi, welcome, post something so we are sure you are not a bot. 

There are not too many blackhats around here, we are the poor whitehats. But there was one person with billions of dollars (that's what he said) teaching us how to be reach at some point.

[cloverblanket]

On 11/9/2025 at 4:48 AM, Nytro said:

Hi, welcome, post something so we are sure you are not a bot. 

There are not too many blackhats around here, we are the poor whitehats. But there was one person with billions of dollars (that's what he said) teaching us how to be reach at some point.

Thanks for the comment! I am not a bot haha 

Do you think that a lot of whitehats have dabbled in blackhat at some point maybe out of curiosity or just learning?

[Nytro]

It is not worth it to be blackhat. You can get enough money being whitehat. 

[netanyahu]

On 11/12/2025 at 8:12 AM, Nytro said:

It is not worth it to be blackhat. You can get enough money being whitehat. 

 

Yeah, let's normalize being let go every once in a while, live in a constant stress.

Security teams are being disbanded in each and every company, replaced with cheaper workforce from Pakistan, India and so on, this is the reality we're living in right now. Even if you get enough money, it's still not a normal situation.

 

AI AI AI AI FTW!

 

Maybe it's time to switch sides, being a white hat isn't worth it anymore imo. 

 

[cloverblanket]

On 11/14/2025 at 7:32 AM, netanyahu said:

 

Yeah, let's normalize being let go every once in a while, live in a constant stress.

Security teams are being disbanded in each and every company, replaced with cheaper workforce from Pakistan, India and so on, this is the reality we're living in right now. Even if you get enough money, it's still not a normal situation.

 

AI AI AI AI FTW!

 

Maybe it's time to switch sides, being a white hat isn't worth it anymore imo. 

 

That's a fair point. Do you think switching sides would be difficult for some? I mean in terms of feeling bad?- or do you think its easy to turn that off?

[netanyahu]

On 11/15/2025 at 11:26 PM, cloverblanket said:

That's a fair point. Do you think switching sides would be difficult for some? I mean in terms of feeling bad?- or do you think its easy to turn that off?

 

First, you have to wise up to how clueless the corporate suits are and what a clown show the corporate world is from the inside. Why should I feel bad about jumping ship?

 

If they're going to shuffle all their OPEX to CAPEX, they'll just be stuck with garbage security tools that generate more noise than anything useful. The security talent pool is a joke, all over the world, belive me, I've run plenty of interviews. If those are the people getting hired, then good luck to those companies, they will more than sure need it.

 

Then you've got bug bounties, where you're totally at the mercy of the triagers. Have fun finding a solid bug just to be told it's a 'duplicate' or even worse, they accept it and then cut the bounty in half.

 

From where I'm sitting, playing by the rules just isn't worth it anymore. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, but the whole situation in tech is a mess worldwide. So, you should probably expect things to get a lot uglier next year, in terms of security incidents. 

 

10 years ago, yeah, maybe you could become a black hat with not too much repercursions, at least in Romania. Nowadays, the situations is a bit different, laws are harsher, Police is smarter (lol) and you need to be smarter than all of them. Go to Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines or Italy if you want to start your criminal career. 

 

Something to think about, I've seen an increase of old school members coming back to this place after more than 10 years of inactivity, what does that tell you?

 

If you want to break the patterns, you will need to change your entire mindset, and, instead of working for some corporate jokers you should build something yourself. 

 

Really curious on what @Nytro and @Noriega have to say on this, as I'll always consider other opinions from people which I consider to be smarter than me.

 

Let's not normalize layoffs, this isn't going in the right direction:

Edited 5 hours ago by netanyahu

[Nytro]

The main difference between a whitehat and a blackhat is the way they sleep. Being blackhat means you do illegal stuff. I know, hiding IP bla bla, but in the end you get some money, use it, or you make a mistake or something and there are chances to end up in prison. I prefer less money but no worries. 

 

Regarding companies hiring in India or other countries, it is like people buying stuff: some buy from Temu, some get Lamborghinis, there is enough for everyone. As a whitehat, you need to offer quality for your services. And this, for sure, happens on the blackhat market as well. 

 

As a short conclusion, my opinion on this: it is very difficult to make a lot of money as blackhat, to be actually worth it. There are few people doing this. While there are millions of IT persons just doing well, having nice lives, family and everything they really need (not Lambos).