Given the recent spate of data breaches, the hackers plan the attacks and target their victims in a way that it becomes a major challenge for organizations to stop them.
Conti, a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) program, is one of the most well-known ransomware groups, having infected hundreds of servers with malware in order to gain access to corporate data or cause digital damage, causing misery to individuals, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and others around the world.
The cyberattacks by the hackers have become quite complex and challenging for cyber security experts to mitigate them.
Last year, enforcing the “double-extortion” technique, also known as “pay-now-or-get-breached” became a talking point. A recent example is May 6th, 2022. According to the U.S. State Department, the Conti strain of ransomware was the most expensive in terms of victim payments as of January.
Motive of a Hacker
So, what motivates a hacker? Let’s find out…
There are several motivation for hackers to hack into systems. Some of the common reasons for hackers to hack are:
Money: For the hackers, money is one of the most typical motives for breaking into a system. Several hackers attempt to steal your passwords or bank accounts in order to profit from your hard-earned money. If hackers got their hands on your customer information, they could use it in several ways, including blackmailing you or selling it on the black market or deep web. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million in 2004 and has now climbed to $4.24 million in 2021. In the next years, it is likely to climb much more.
Hacktivism: Some hackers view hacking as a way to launch political and social revolutions, but the majority are more concerned in expressing their view points, exercising their views on human rights, or raising awareness about certain concerns. They can, however, target whomever they want, including terrorist organizations, government organizations, and local government officials.
Hacktivists, commonly known as ‘Anonymous,’ usually target terror groups such as ISIS or some other groups, although they have also targeted local government institutions. Thousands of documents and records were leaked after an attack on the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, in January 2016. With a video promising “justice” for the city’s ongoing water issue, which has resulted in 12 deaths over time, the group claimed responsibility.
Hacktivists’ primary weapons, whether it’s a single hacker or a malicious group, include Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) tools and vulnerability scanners, which have been demonstrated to inflict financial losses for well-known organizations.
Insider Threats: Insider attacks can originate from anywhere, but they are considered one of the most serious cyber security threats to businesses. Employees, vendors, contractors, or a partner can all pose threats, which always keep the security teams on their toes.
Someone in your company is becoming the primary reason for a cyber threat. Almost all the workers, vendors, contractors, and partners are theoretically internal to the organization, now that we think about it. Enterprises’ main systems of protection have a key flaw: firewalls and anti-virus programs can be readily evaded by whoever has access to them at any given point of time.
Hence, there is a possibility of insider threat when the next wave of cyberattacks hits, who better to entrust with vital security access than someone you’ve always trusted? Damage control procedures must be developed to avoid a repeat of Sony’s hack in 2014 which may be possibly perpetuated by its own employee.
Revenge: If you have an angry employee seeking for a means to exact revenge on your organization, they will almost certainly spend time planning a successful attack, making you reconsider terminating them.
If they have access to your system, you can bet they’ll try to exploit their privileged status to retaliate against the firm, even after they’ve left the organization. Accessing databases and accounts that require logins and passwords is one technique to do this. In other circumstances, dissatisfied employees may sell sensitive information in return for money or better career opportunities, only to cause havoc with your company’s infrastructure.
Concluding Words
For their malicious intent, cyber hackers can now do just as much analyzing and evaluating as security teams. They have the same or even more tools to scan any system, therefore being able to predict their motive and profiles is useful.
With hackers getting more sophisticated, it’s more important than ever to have proactive cybersecurity processes in place to keep the organization safe and secure.