When a system is compromised, hackers have their reasons for why they want data from the system. The motives could be for money, entertainment, political, etc. There are seven generalized motives that hackers have that can be ranked from one through seven. One being seen more and seven being seen the least.
1. Multiple Reasons
Multiple reasons is exactly as it sounds. Hackers of all ages have their own reasons for compromising a system or someone’s credentials. Multiple reasons can be a combination of the motives listed below. For example, money and political motives have close ties to one another. Lazarus from North Korea is a state-sponsored hacking group. They often deploy ransomware and cryptocurrency campaigns in the name of the North Korean government. Lazarus does this to make money for themselves and keep the Kim political dynasty afloat with a steady source of income.
2. Money
Coming in second place, money and monetary gain are one of the main motives for hackers. On the internet, data is money. Companies store data on customers and employees, which allows for more effective marketing campaigns. However, hackers can also use this data for malicious purposes. Companies that experience server and database hacks often have some sort of information stolen. This could be source code, employee, or customer data. Data of this nature is then sold on the dark web for other people to find and exploit the information as they wish.
3. Recognition
Hacker groups often gain some sort of recognition after compromising systems or using denial of service attacks. Anonymous would be notorious for using such attacks. In 2020, Anonymous would hack the United Nations website and would create a page for Taiwan. Anonymous would claim responsibility for the attack which would gain them recognition.
4. Entertainment
Entertainment is number four out of seven for hacker motives. Not many hackers hack for entertainment reasons. Nonetheless, the hacking group Lizard Squad would hack and deploy denial of service attacks from 2014 – 2015. During Christmas of 2014, they would take down Playstation and Xbox Live networks to prevent players from playing online games. They would watch the chaos unfold as many would complain to Sony and Microsoft that their systems were not working. Lizard Squad would do the attack because they just wanted entertainment.
5. Bordem
People that have technical knowledge of hacking can also hack out of boredom. Boredom is human nature. Giving into boredom can lead to rational and non-rational decisions. This can lead to people hacking for fun, which can be dangerous as the motives can switch to fun to monetary gain to relieve boredom. Boredom ranks number four because it can switch from boredom to more serious motives such as money or even recognition.
6. Political
Political motives are number six on the motive scale. Although there are individual hackers and smaller groups, larger hacker groups such as Lazarus and Red Apollo are state-sponsored APTs (advanced persistent threats). APTs often hack for political motives. They deploy ransomware, denial of service attacks, malware, and more to achieve their political goals for the nation of origin. Even though APTs are usually state sponsored, they often hack for information that can be sold to other countries. This means APTs often have more monetary goals in mind.
7. Revenge
Hackers that hack for revenge are called blue hat hackers. Anonymous is a prime example of this happening. For example, in 2022, Anonymous would launch attacks against the Russian Federation because of the war started in Ukraine. Anonymous would boot systems offline and compromise systems that would have sensitive information on officials in the Russian government. Revenge hacking is not as prevalent as black hat hacking, which means hacking for monetary gain.
