The Advanced Research Project Agency released a paper, in 1967, called the Rand report R-609. This paper sates that if we are going to connect systems to each other, we need to make sure they are secured from unauthorized access. Herein lies the problem, computers initially gave scientists and senior military the ability to transfer data and information to each other, but where does that leave the common man? Fast forward to almost 60 years later, and the world is connected, by systems that were only theorized by ARPA. In my opinion the disconnect was when the rand report was released it was only seen by those in the higher echelons of the military and scientists. Common man was left out until the 70’sbecause we had neither the ability or the intellect to understand the implications of not securing systems properly. When ARPANET was released the first virus was released by a scientist. Today there is a plethora of computer related problems that are created by not only scientists, either good or bad, but also by common man. These individuals have both the ability and intellect to write the code for viruses, ransomware etc, but they don’t have the funding, nor the means to attend our most prestigious universities, so instead they sit in family homes and learn from people like themselves. Their motives can be broken down into seven different reasons by order of how dangerous they have the potential to be.
- Multiple Reasons – This is by far the most dangerous because it takes multiple items from the list. For example one that does not agree with current politics may seek revenge to get his political way, which if done right they may be able to gain some recognition as well as monetary gain. This would cause a domino affect that would eventually lead to jail.
- Political – The reason this so high on the list is because hacktivists are able to put potential bad apples in leadership positions. This may not seem very dangerous until one realizes the implications 7of putting a leader in place that could lead a country into a needless war.
- Monetary Gain – This is a dangerous scenario because once a hacker figures out how to do one thing that gains them money, they keep going back to it over and over again. This brings on the idea that pursuing monetary gain by hacking is attune to a drug addiction.
- Revenge – This can be a culmination of multiple other parts of this list. For instance, if a person decides that they are wronged by the political party they hacked for they become enamored by this and try to ruin the lives of their opponents.
- Recognition – Some hackers just want recognition. They want everyone around to know what they did. They don’t publicly boast on social media, but more on hackers websites with others of the same skills.
- Boredom – With as disconnected as the world has become in a physical since the young adults and children become bored. Once they have finished playing games, and mindlessly scrolling through social media posts some of them decide to pursue hacking.
- Entertainment – This a draw up between first and last because, while some may find hacking and cracking fun it can become dangerous very quickly.
In the end all of these motives have a potential to become dangerous in more ways than one. This is why cybersecurity needs to be more prevalent in the lives of children as thy are brought up. This will teach them personal responsibility.