Rank the motives from 1 to 7 as the motives that you think make the most sense (being 1) to the least sense (being 7). Explain why you rank each motive the way you rank it.
List of motives: Entertainment, Political, Revenge, Boredom, Recognition, For money, Multiple reasons
1. For money – easily the number one reason hackers do what they do; more money equals more freedom, more opportunity, but also could equal more problems. Mid-level criminals earn upwards of $900,000.00 on average, annually. Most people won’t see that type of money in their lifetime, so earning it in a year also gives hackers a lot more power.
2. Multiple reasons – this motive encompasses a broader variety of motives, so it would be safer to put it in the number two spot; this could encompass all or a select number of the motives from the list.
3. Recognition – hackers may want to be recognized depending on the reputation of the entity they are hacking; hacking is very competitive, so receiving validation for their work is likely very important for establishing reputation within their own respective communities. It could even increase the adrenaline/thrill they get from the act itself, not more thrill than getting paid though.
4. Revenge – there are some theories that say individuals will commit cyber offenses based on impulse, and anger-/revenge-motivated actions are typically results of impulse. Impulse is typically going to be a stronger force than boredom, so I ranked it above. This motive could technically encompass political beliefs as well as some outside force/entity could be involved in politic actions against a party that the hacker may be involved with causing that same revenge-oriented impulse.
5. Political – I ranked this here only because I don’t hear or see much related to political-related hacking/attacks, but I believe it still occurs more often than the two motives below.
6. Boredom – similar to entertainment, there are plenty of hackers that commit malicious acts because they are bored, but here there are far fewer that do it for reasons of boredom compared to the reasons above. A tiny bit of incentive for committing the act is satisfaction, which could provide a little bit more motivation, but still not enough to be more prevalent.
7. Entertainment – while there are plenty of hackers that do commit these malicious acts for fun, there are far less that do it for fun than all of the other motives listed above; involving some type of incentive for the action provides more motivation to actually commit the act. Hackers who do it for fun likely are motivated to do so just to say that they could.
The above rankings are based strictly on context, noticeable trends, and personal logic; these are not to be taken as undeniable fact.