Let's first make an important distinction: Hackers are not criminals. In fact, "hacker" is a term of high praise in the developer community. But when a hacker is dubbed a "black hat," it means he or she has broken laws in the pursuit of hacking -- perhaps even that he or she has done so for personal gain.
However, many black hat hackers have gone legit in their more mature years. While it's not uncommon to see former cybercriminals switching teams to work as IT security consultants, many of the more high-profile black hat hackers also find themselves writing books, doing journalism and even getting public speaking gigs in the cybersecurity world.
So with that understanding, let's turn our gaze upon these seven fascinating personalities who once hacked indiscriminately and are now employed respectably -- some of them even by the companies they once hacked.
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