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A cyber attack is a deliberate attempt to steal, expose, alter, disable, or destroy data, applications, or other digital assets by gaining unauthorized access to a network, computer system, or digital device.
Cyber attack poses significant threats to businesses, with the potential to cause severe disruption, damage, and even complete destruction. The financial impact of a data breach is substantial, averaging USD 4.35 million. This figure encompasses the expenses involved in detecting and addressing the breach, the downtime and lost revenue incurred, as well as the long-term reputational harm to both the business and its brand.
The Varied Motivations Behind Cyber Attacks: Understanding the Main Categories
Cyber attacks are driven by different motivations, which generally fall into three primary categories: criminal, political, and personal. Understanding these motives can help businesses and individuals better protect themselves against these threats.
Criminal Motivations
Cybercriminals are typically after financial gain. Their tactics include monetary theft, data theft, and business disruption. Some common methods are:
- Direct Monetary Theft: Hacking into bank accounts to steal money.
- Social Engineering Scams: Tricking individuals into sending money through deceptive means.
- Data Theft: Stealing personal or business data to commit identity theft or sell the information on the dark web.
- Extortion: Using ransomware, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, or other methods to hold data or devices hostage until a ransom is paid.
Interestingly, the latest X-Force Threat Intelligence Index reveals that 32% of cyber incidents involve the theft and sale of data rather than encryption for extortion.
Political Motivations
Politically motivated cyberattacks are often linked to cyberwarfare, cyberterrorism, or hacktivism. These attackers target government agencies or critical infrastructure, usually backed by nation-states. For instance, the Russia-Ukraine war has seen a significant rise in cyber attacks on vital institutions from both sides.
Hacktivists aim to draw public attention to their causes rather than causing severe damage. They use cyberattacks to make their grievances known, hoping to sway public opinion or force changes.
Personal Motivations
Personal motives for cyber attacks typically involve retribution. Disgruntled current or former employees may seek revenge for perceived wrongs by:
- Stealing money or sensitive data
- Disrupting company systems
While these are the primary motivations, there are less common reasons for cyberattacks, such as corporate espionage, where hackers steal intellectual property to gain an advantage over competitors. Additionally, some vigilante hackers exploit system vulnerabilities to warn others. Others hack for sport, enjoying the intellectual challenge.
“Cyberattacks can stem from criminal, political, or personal motivations, each presenting unique challenges and risks in our increasingly digital world.”
Understanding the various motivations behind cyberattacks is crucial for developing effective defense strategies. By recognizing these threats, individuals and organizations can better prepare and protect themselves against potential cyber incidents.
Who Launches Cyber Threats?
Criminal organizations, state actors, and private individuals can all initiate cyberattacks. A common way to classify these threat actors is by categorizing them as either outsider threats or insider threats.
Outsider threats are those who are not authorized to use a network or device but manage to break in any way. These external cyberthreat actors include organized criminal groups, professional hackers, state-sponsored actors, amateur hackers, and hacktivists.
Insider threats involve users who have authorized and legitimate access to a company’s assets and misuse their privileges, either deliberately or accidentally. This category includes employees, business partners, clients, contractors, and suppliers with system access.
While negligent users can put their companies at risk, it only qualifies as a cyber attack if the user intentionally uses their privileges to carry out malicious activities. For example, an employee who carelessly stores sensitive information on an unsecured drive is not committing a cyberattack. However, a disgruntled employee who knowingly makes copies of confidential data for malicious purposes is engaging in a cyber attack.
This distinction between insider and outsider threats is crucial for organizations to understand and address in their cybersecurity strategies.
What Do Cyber Threat Operators Target?
Why do threat actors break into computer networks? They often target:
- Money
- Financial data
- Client lists
- Customer data (PII)
- Email addresses and login credentials
- Intellectual property
Sometimes, they aim to disrupt information systems or IT infrastructure rather than steal data. What can you do to protect your organization from these threats?
The Far-Reaching Impact of Cyber Attacks on Businesses
Cyber attack poses a significant threat to enterprises, potentially causing downtime, data loss, and financial damage. For instance, hackers can deploy malware or denial-of-service attacks to crash systems or servers. This downtime often results in major service interruptions and substantial financial losses. The Cost of a Data Breach report reveals that the average breach leads to USD 1.42 million in lost business.
SQL injection attacks are another common tactic, allowing hackers to alter, delete, or steal data from systems. Phishing attacks trick individuals into handing over money or sensitive information, while ransomware attacks can paralyze a system until the company pays the hacktivists.
Beyond direct harm, cyberattacks incur significant secondary costs. The Cost of a Data Breach report highlights that businesses spend an average of US$ 2.62 million on detecting, responding to, and fixing breaches.
The impact of cyberattacks can also extend beyond the immediate victim. In 2021, the DarkSide ransomware gang targeted the Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined oil pipeline system in the US. They gained access using a compromised password and shut down the pipeline, which supplies 45% of the gas, diesel, and jet fuel to the US East Coast. This led to widespread fuel shortages.
The cybercriminals demanded nearly USD 5 million in Bitcoin, which Colonial Pipeline paid. However, with assistance from the US government, the company eventually recovered USD 2.3 million of the ransom.
