Ranking an individual’s motives to commit a cybercrime from highest to lowest

For Money (1)

In an economy that requires money to do any thing, even just to live, money would be the number one reason that cybercrimes are committed. With 30% of cyber criminal’s profits being put into investments (Carole 2018), it looks like many criminals want to escape from the normal 9-5 job and live a life of luxury.

Revenge (2)

People’s feeling can be hurt easily and those people will always look to find a to commit revenge on that person. When an intimate couple break up because one of them cheated on the other, that person that got cheated on might want to get their revenge by posting a revenge porn on social media. With loose guidelines established by social media organizations, this allows those people to commit revenge porn.

Political (3)

Politicians will do anything possible to gain the position they are wanting and commiting a cybercrime to put down their opponites will guarantee there spot. There is always banter going on between politicians however, some will even go as far as to pay someone to get some dirt on their opponites that they can use as leverage in debates.

Multiple Reasons (4)

In come cases, there are multiple reasons as to why people will commit a crime, the same goes for a cybercrime. Some people may want to get revenge from someone who crossed them by stealing their money, wanting to watch their life fall apart (entertainment), or because they got the political position instead of themselves. One reason is just enough to get someone to commit a cybercrime however, having multiple will definitly cause them to do it without any sort of thinking process.

Entertainment (5)

Some people like the idea of doing ethical hacking and consider it a hobby to see what they can do or get while doing some illegal activity. Even though they might not do anything with the information they gain, it is still a crime to obtain the information. There is a fine line that determines what is ethical and unethical and people who do it for entertainment and no personal gain, are riding that fine line, or just on the side of unethical.

Boredom (6)

Similar to entertainment, when ethical hackers get bored of only doing penetration testing, they may want to take it a step further and see where they can go with the information they gain with the pen testing. Some of the people who are bored and commit cybercrimes may not always do it for personal gain, but it is illegal for them to breach their procedures while doing their penetration testing.

Recognition (7)

Not a lot of people want to commit a cybercrime for the recognition because they are commiting a crime which can lead to them receiving fines or jail time. Many unethical hackers tend to stay anonymous and try to hide their tracks so law enforcement cannot find them. People who do it for the recognition either are trying to make it known to someone who crossed them, to not do it again, or trying to impress an organization they want to get hired at but are doing it in the wrong way.

Some Refrences

Baker, L. (2019, July 11). Revenge porn victims in Wales often feel “let down by the law” as cybercrime slips through the net. News from Wales. https://newsfromwales.co.uk/revenge-porn-victims-in-wales-often-feel-let-down-by-the-law-as-cybercrime-slips-through-the-net/

Carole, J. (2018, April 11). How Cybercriminals Spend Their Money (infographic). HP Wolf Security. https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/sex-drugs-and-toilet-rolls-how-cybercriminals-spend-their-money-infographic/

Corfield, G. (2021, June 30). 8-month suspended sentence for script kiddie who DDoS’d Labour candidate in runup to 2019 UK general election. The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/30/bradley_niblock_election_ddos/

Lovejoy, B. (2021, July 19). LinkedIn scraping of 700M records was “for fun” says hacker. 9to5Mac. https://9to5mac.com/2021/07/19/man-behind-linkedin-scraping/

Reuters. (2021, March 26). New generation of angry & youthful hackers join the “hacktivism” wave, adding to cyber-security woes. Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/new-generation-of-angry-youthful-hackers-join-the-hacktivism-wave-adding-to-cyber-security-woes/articleshow/81707844.cms

Sonjica, N. (2021, May 31). Cyberbullying and online sexual grooming of children “on the increase.” HeraldLIVE. https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2021-05-31-cyberbullying-and-online-sexual-grooming-of-children-on-the-increase/

Zurkus, K. (2018, August 15). What Drives Hackers to a Life of Cybercrime? Infosecurity Magazine. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/what-drives-hackers-to-a-life-of/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_c1d89a4695edbd23f2bceb54d70f35ce5e536e86-1626721164-0-gqNtZGzNAfijcnBszQi6