Actor motivations

The first question most people ask when approaching cyber threat intelligence as an industry for employment or as a means for security posture improvement is, why do threat actors do what they do? What motivates them to perform these malicious acts? Well, the answer varies from individual to individual but ideally, it can be broken down into some very basic categories. No matter what motivation, it's important to understand that all these individuals are opportunistic, meaning they take what they can and are looking for the simplest methods to achieve results. That's it – no magic here.

As we move through this section, we'll explore several motivations that drive threat actors while providing examples of each along the way. Whether it be financially motivated or some form of ideological belief system, you'll find that the foundation of each threat actor's actions varies.

Bragging rights or for fun

Now, this is going to sound...