10 January 2018

Infographic Of The Day: Why Hackers Hack - Motives Behind Cyberattacks


Cyber attacks caused $450 billion of damage to the global economy in 2016, and this number is predicted to keep rising as we keep adding more connected devices to the mix. The magnitude of this impact should not be understated. It’s bigger than the size of notable economies like the UAE ($371B) or Norway ($370B) – which is why it’s no surprise to see organizations putting major resources to shore up their internal defenses and to reduce the risk of threats.


But while the origins of this cybersecurity boom may be clear, what is less obvious is why all of this hacking is happening in the first place.

Why do hackers hack, and what are the motives behind these powerful cyberattacks?
Why Hackers Hack

Today’s infographic breaks down the statistics from a couple of large global studies on cybersecurity.

One of the first datasets shown comes from Radware, showing the motives behind why hackers hack:

Ransom (41%)
Insider threat (27%)
Political reasons (26%)
Competition (26%)
Cyberwar (24%)
Angry user (20%)
Motive unknown (11%)

Interestingly, ransom is a top motive at 41% – but other reasons like politics, competition, and cyberwar were pretty evenly distributed in the mix as well.



No comments: