Section 4: Threats

Threat Motivations

• Data Exfiltration

• Espionage

• Service Disruption

• Blackmail

• Financial Gain

• Philosophical/Political Beliefs

• Ethical

• Revenge

• Disruption/Chaos

• War

Data Exfiltration

stealing data from a target, often for selling or leverage

Espionage

spying on entities to gather sensitive info, common with nation-states

Service Disruption

disabling or disturbing a service often seen with hacktivists protesting against specific services or companies

Blackmail

threating to release sensitive data unless a demand is met

Financial Gain

stealing data or directly siphoning money a common motivation for organized crime

Philosophical/Political beliefs

acting based on personal or group beliefs

Ethical

acting on perceived ethical obligations, sometimes seen with whistleblowers or white hat hackers

Revenge

targeting an entity out of vengeance for a perceived wrong

Disruption/chaos

motivated purely by the desire to create disorder sometimes without specific political or financial goals

War

cyber operations that are a component of larger warfare, typically driven by nation states

Types of Threat Actors

• Nation-state

• Unskilled attacker

• Hacktivist

• Insider threat

• Organized Crime

• Shadow IT

Attributes of an Attacker

• Internal/External

• Resources/funding

• level of sophistication/capability