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When we hear about cyberattacks on the news, we often find criminals trying to steal important data or asking for a ransom from someone wealthy. Yet, these are not the only reasons — or motives — for hackers to strike.
A motive is what drives an attack, leading it from the beginning until the end. Motives vary from attacker to attacker depending on their goal, skills, and general capabilities. Today, we will learn about the five most common ones, including the financial gain mentioned before, and find out the profiles that match them.
Financial Gain
The reason why we see financial-related cyberattacks on the news the most is that financial gain is truly the most common motive out there. Criminals would sneak into systems, steal data, or disrupt the script to steal money directly, ask for ransom, or sell the data on the dark web. In most cases, stolen data includes credit card details and other sensitive information.
Newbies rarely attack for financial gain. It’s expert groups that usually carry out the bigger hacks. Their actions are professional, well-planned, and very close to what organized crime groups in other markets do. One of the things that can stop them is a good VPN for pc, both for companies and individual users. Knowing that VPN encrypts the connection and reroutes the server IP, makes any financial transactions or personal data harder to intercept.
Hacktivism
Hacking activism, or hacktivism, is a criminal activity done to draw attention to a certain topic or conflict. It’s often politically or socially motivated: activists want the attacked company or individual to pay attention to a certain issue. Many hacker groups also promote their ideas with hacktivism, such as:
- anti-corruption;
- anti-war;
- human rights;
- freedom of speech, etc.
So, they are not interested in stealing data or gaining money.
Hacktivists have a long history. The term was first established in 1996 by the hacker group “Cult of the Dead Cow” member “Omega”. Back in the day, having a computer and programming skills was seen as a new, easy tool for disobedience by hackers.
Cyber Espionage
Cyber espionage is an act of unauthorized access to sensitive information to gain an advantage in political, financial, or strategic decisions. Hackers who focus on cyber espionage are often hired by the government. Their task is to either collect data or disrupt operations for the opposite side of the conflict with long-term tactics and attacks.
Unlike the commonly known cybercrime, cyber espionage targets any institutions working for the rival, including government agencies, national corporations, military organizations, and research institutions.
Revenge
Attacks motivated by revenge can vary in scale. For example, they can be driven by personal offence and targeted at certain individuals, such as ex-partners who feel wronged or heartbroken, leaking someone’s sensitive data to the internet.
They can also be caused by unresolved professional injustice and threaten the whole company. Often, it’s former employees who still have access to the corporation’s systems or data: they disrupt operations, steal information, and cause any other type of harm to the company.
Curiosity and Thrill-Seeking
Not all attacks are professional. Some of them don’t even have a particular goal to leak or steal something. For some, the motive is simple curiosity or a thrill of breaking into the system. The amusement of unauthorized access is what drives the attack.
Criminals looking for this kind of joy are called trolls or script kiddies, as they rarely write their own malware to break into the system. More often than not, they provoke reactions by reusing old, pre-written software they find online. Trolls who execute more complex attacks, on the other hand, are looking to boast about their skills.
Recognize and Prevent
Cyberattacks may seem very similar, but the motives and goals can vary from hacker to hacker. Most of them are looking for financial gain, so they steal and sell information or hold it for ransom. Others might hack to spread their ideas and disobey the system. Government-sponsored hackers also disrupt the rival’s systems and gain their personal data.
But some attacks are also personal, seeking revenge or just an emotional thrill. By knowing about the roots of these attacks, individuals can better defend themselves by using VPNs, antiviruses, and other useful software.
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