- Black hat
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For other uses, see Black hat (disambiguation).
A black hat is the villain or bad guy, especially in a western movie in which such a character would stereotypically wear a black hat in contrast to the hero's white hat, especially in black and white movies.[1] In Jewish circles, it refers to the ultra-orthodox who wear large-brimmed black hats. The phrase is often used figuratively, especially in computing slang, where it refers to a computer security hacker who breaks into networks or computers, or creates computer viruses.[2]
Notable actors playing black hat villains in movies
See also
- Hacker (computer security)
- White hat (film)
References
- ^ George N. Fenin, William K. Everson (1973), The Western, from silents to the seventies
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2008. http://dictionary.oed.com. "black hat n. colloq. (orig. U.S.) (a) a villain or criminal, esp. one in a film or other work of fiction; a ‘bad guy’; (b) Computing slang a person who engages in illegal or malicious hacking, creates or distributes computer viruses, etc."
Categories:- Film and video terminology
- Internet culture
- Hacking (computer security)
- Film terminology stubs
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