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Almost every day we hear about new cyber attacks in the news, and hackers break into the databases of every imaginable organization, from companies that provide services to Internet forums and social networks to large government agencies and multinational companies. But what makes one company a more attractive target for hackers than another? Do hackers have a specific way of choosing their victims? And if yes, can organizations defend themselves more effectively by identifying these approaches?
Types of hackers
Before we examine how hackers choose their targets, we need to examine who these hackers are. In today’s world, you can find a wide range of hackers, each with their own motivations in choosing victims and attack tactics.
It can be argued that the most well-known type of hacker are “hacktivists”, thanks to the widespread activities of groups such as Anonymous. These hackers usually have little experience, they work alone or in small groups, and they are usually younger and older than other hackers. The driving force of hacktivists is ideology, and they usually target institutions and companies that have points of view contrary to their own. Hacktivists usually aim to publicly release information that they have stolen from their target networks and websites, and they look at this as a form of protest.
Hacktivists have previously targeted terrorist groups such as ISIS and American neo-Nazis, government organizations and private companies. Although their methods can attract attention, these types of hackers are rare today.
On the opposite side of hacktivists who have social and political concerns, we find the most common type of hackers who are cybercriminals with financial goals. These hackers, usually associated with organized crime syndicates, have long understood the monetization potential of online crime and employ a wide range of cyber attack campaigns to achieve their goals. Many of their activities—such as phishing scams and ransomware campaigns—are designed to be implemented on a large scale and likely increase revenue by affecting the most potential victims.
Other strategies are more targeted: many attacks involve identifying wealthy organizations and using spear-phishing methods or direct penetration into the network to carry out fraud, theft or blackmail operations. These kinds of attacks usually target private sector organizations, which are usually considered richer than natural and legal persons in the public sector.
The other and main category of hackers are those who operate with government support. These hackers work under the umbrella of certain governments and organize cyber attacks on their behalf. In order to easily deny the whole story, these hackers are usually hacktivists or ordinary cybercriminals who become a project in government employment, but sometimes this cooperation takes a more advanced form and hackers become members of the intelligence agencies of that government. .
From a certain point of view, these state actors are similar to two other types of hackers: they sometimes choose their victims based on political motives: such as the attack on Sony Pictures, which was carried out by North Korean hackers in response to the release of the movie The Interview. . Of course, these hackers sometimes have attacks with financial motives: for example, the same group that was responsible for the attack on Sony Pictures is now busy stealing credit card information, and in this way they generate income for their respective governments.
Different goals
What we discussed above shows that hackers may have a wide range of different motivations when choosing their potential targets to organize cyber attacks. For the vast majority, the ultimate goal is simply to get rich. And this goal can be realized either in the form of receiving money for decrypting files affected by ransomware or blackmailing victims whose personal information has been stolen.
If that’s the main goal, then it would make sense for hackers to go after victims who are more likely to pay. And this means wealthy companies and publicly traded companies, which will likely suffer a fatal blow to the stock market if the news of hacking their networks becomes public. An alternative tactic could be to use mass attacks that affect the general public: for example, the release of ransomware that seeks to collect small amounts of money from a large number of victims.
But for ideological attackers, motivation takes a very different form. Human nature is such that there are countless reasons why a hacker might attack a company: he might disagree with the target company’s values, he might be angry about their recent decision, or he might see his target as a representative of a larger system in the world that he doesn’t mind. hit it.
But whatever the main motive, the goal is usually to shame the victim. And this is accomplished by shining a light on things that the victim prefers to remain hidden. Internal emails are usually a key target for such attacks, and financial documents may indicate a violation of sound procedures.
However, there is one common characteristic that we see in almost all cybercriminals: hackers are lazy. They usually choose the easier options, and this also applies to the targets and methods they consider for attack. If access to the necessary information to enter a network, no hacker will go to a washed-up and zero-day vulnerability. Similarly, when you put two targets in front of hackers, the one that defends itself weakly will be the first choice of the hackers.
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