Is anyone following the Carissa Shaw drama on IG?

A "White Hat" hacker is someone who hacks computer systems or does physical penetration testing (trying to break into a building, for example) for good purposes.  They're either hired by the software company or business/individual against whom the hacking is going to be done, or they find exploits and bring those findings to the attention of the necessary parties to get the vulnerability patched before it is maliciously exploited.

This situation sounds more Grey Hat to me, because presumably they were going to hack some third parties / devices who would otherwise object to the data breach, but at the bequest of Shaw. 

Many companies offer bounties for exploits that are found and reported to them rather than sold on the black or grey market.  The ultimate prize is a "day zero vulnerability" - something that is known only to the hacker and can be used to take control or disrupt the software, hardware or business.  They can be worth millions, depending on the affected system and how useful the exploit is.  As you can imagine, many governments and agencies are willing to pay for such knowledge.