Why do hackers like to wear hooded shirts, sitting in the dark?

Hacker's fashion is often the same and most are affected by movies or media.

Hackers are divided into two groups based on how they work: "white hat" hackers specialize in detecting security vulnerabilities to protect users and "black hat" hackers from using their network attack capabilities. bad purpose. There is another group of hackers called "gray hats" that lie between the boundaries of "black hats" and "white hats" , which often tend to protect users and steal data for unwarranted purposes. However, all appearances have in common: wearing a hooded black shirt and sitting in the dark with the computer , at least according to the photos ever posted on the Internet.

However, this image is not up to now. According to cyber security expert Marc Rogers, Cloudflare's director of information security and head of the world's largest hacker conference Defcon - this style has been around since the early 90s of the last century.

The hacker image is often seen.

According to Rogers, in the 80s and early 90s, hackers looked like a "cyberpunks" . In a 1993 edition of Mondo 2000 magazine, "cyberpunks" were people wearing high heels, leather jackets and gloves that covered the fingers.

By 1995, when the movie Hackers was shown, the fashion of hackers gradually changed."Cyberpunks are not ugly fashion figures in the eyes of hackers, but the film has made them mimic many things, thereby making them more fresh , " Rogers said.

Defcon has existed for more than two decades (June 1993) and Rogers has seen many changes in hacker fashion."There are still leather jackets, shoes, boots . But after that, some people appeared with dyed hair, skis. They were the type of people who saw Hackers movies, wanted to be hackers, take pictures. photos from there and some make them fresher, " Rogers said.

In recent years, when the trend of more "black hat" hackers, especially cybercriminals, steal bank accounts, hooded robes start to be used because they want to "have more images." " . According to CNN, the cause comes from mass media and social networks.

This style is intended to augment "mystery" , making hackers "look more intimidating" .

"Although hackers often ridicule the media, they themselves are influenced by the fashion style shown on it. Sometimes, black hooded shirts become" uniforms "of a hacker group." , Brian Bartholomew, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said.

Bartholomew said that the movie Mr.Robot best illustrates this style. In the movie, Elliot - the main character, a 29-year-old hacker - often wears a black robe.

In addition, there is another style, which is to live in the dark and wear a black mask. Rogers said that this style is intended to increase "mystery" , making hackers "seem more scary" .

Rogers predicts the above patterns may continue to change in the future and the media and social media are the most influential factors.