After reviewing the Articles and 7 motives for cybercrime, I have chosen a ranking from most motivating to least motivating below.
- Money – I find this to be the biggest motivator. After reviewing the article the average entry-level hacker can make upwards of $42,000. It also states that 15% of cybercriminals will use their funds on essential needs. Given this data alone, paired with knowing the annual salary of someone who makes federal minimum wage be $15,080 per year. I could see how money could be the highest motivator. Mid-level criminals can make upwards of $900k per year, and top earners can earn over $2,000,000.
- Political—Hacking for political reasons can be a very powerful motivator, especially if it is carried out by nation-states to influence the elections of top officials. This can be done in the best interest of the criminal or criminals to support important policy creation or, ultimately, financial gain. This also includes political hacktivist groups like Anonymous.
- Revenge – Anger can be a powerful motive. One of the top revenge-based cybercrimes is Revenge porn, the act of maliciously distributing lude images of their victims against their consent. Not only is this devastating to the victims, because they lose autonomy of their bodies, but this type of cybercrime can be done to completely disrupt the life of its victims.
- Recognition—I rank this fourth on the list because some criminals or cybercriminal gangs may commit crimes to gain status on social media and among their peers. The ego can be a highly motivating factor.
- Boredom – referencing the specific article presented, acts of children being groomed online are increasing. Children who regularly use devices out of boredom, such as playing video games, can be easy targets for those who are either grooming children in sexually explicit ways or are targets of cyberbullying.
- “Other Factors”—Here, I would emphasize factors such as hacking to further personal knowledge. Some Cybercriminals may commit a crime to test or challenge themselves.
- Entertainment—I put this lowest on the list because I don’t find hacking just for pure entertainment value to be a significant motivator unless it is paired with another motive mentioned above. However, I could see that people might hack for entertainment value if they were particularly active in the hacking community and found the activity fun. But I believe that most people who hack have alternative motives than just entertainment and could find other activities that are not criminal.