Motivations and objectives of threat actors
Cybercriminals are often motivated by financial gain and use methods including identity theft, phishing, or ransomware. Nation-state actors, on the other hand, pursue geopolitical ambitions through cyber espionage. Cyber-terrorists and hacktivists leverage their criminal skills to promote a specific agenda or inflict damage upon perceived enemies.
As security professionals, it is critical to develop targeted countermeasures that protect valuable assets from potential threats. It always goes back to knowing your enemy to build the best defense strategy. With that, security professionals can assess risk and take the appropriate measures to maintain a secure digital environment. To further illustrate the various motivations and objectives, here’s a brief list of examples for each of the threat actor categories:
- Cybercriminals: The Carbanak group is a cybercriminal syndicate that has operated since at least 2013. Some security...
