There are 5 key groups beyond the keyboard that are trying to steal your sensitive information, break into networks, and cause disruption. The big 5 are:
1. Nation States
2. Cyber Criminals
3. Hackers
4. Hacktivists
5. Script Kiddies
#1. Nation States
Nation-states, Nations, Countries, whatever it is you want to call them, play a dominant role throughout the world regarding cyber-attacks. Governments have specific divisions within their intelligence or defense sectors, whose primary role is to disrupt and interrupt.
To put it simply they are hacking squads, with a few high-profile targets in mind. Targets such as other countries, their critical infrastructure, industries, or organizations that host sensitive information. They do this to benefit their country's economy, and political agenda and to strengthen their business and military tactics. It’s all about power. Data leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to a competitive edge, and a competitive edge leads to power. And who doesn’t want power?
#2. Cyber Criminals
Cyber Criminals are everywhere. The thing that makes them unique from the regular everyday life criminal, is that they can be located anywhere in the world and still manage to get to you somehow. They mainly target people, businesses, and governments for the purpose of financial gain. They go after data and money to sell or extort through ransomware. We will touch on some of the techniques later on.
Cyber Gangs also fall within this category. They are similar to cybercriminals but are associated with a particular group to steal data or sometimes just hack for enjoyment. Interestingly they can be geographically separated.
#3. Hackers
A hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network.
Now, these guys can be motivated for a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, recreation, or even helping businesses understand where their weaknesses are in their network.
Hackers can be working alone or in organizational-styled groups. And when I mean organizational groups, I mean there is literally a hierarchy in the organization and they have meetings just like a normal business would, its actually super interesting.
#4. Hacktivists
Combining the words ‘Hack’ and ‘Activism’, hacktivism is the act of hacking, or breaking into a computer system as mentioned before, however it’s for a more particular purpose. That purpose is for politically or socially motivated purposes.
Common targets for hacktivists include government agencies, multinational corporations, or any other entities perceived as ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ by the hacktivist group or individual.
If I was to highlight a Hacktivist group that you may know, I’d have to go with Anonymous. Their famous logo is that of a hacker wearing a mask to symbolize hiding their identity. They are very good at conducting hacktivism activities.
#5. Script Kiddies
Now script kiddies... basically people that don't know what they are doing. Normally bored millennials with too much time on their hand.
This is someone who has no skills in computer hacking, so what they do is download hacking programs off the internet and just click play. There is a very limited amount of technical skill required to be a script kiddie. And we have actually seen an increase in this due to COVID. People are home a lot more, particularly young people with a lot of time on their hands, so they decide to experiment, and this is how they do it.
The Script Kiddies normally won’t even know what the programs do or how they even work. It can be very dangerous, and if caught can do significant jail time.
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