Based on their motives and scale of attack, cyberattackers can be classified into four groups.

First, state sponsored attackers. They are nonstate individuals or organizations who are discreetly supported by a government entity. These attackers generally operate to fulfil political, commercial or military interests of their country of origin.

Attackers use a combination of different techniques ranging from spear phishing attempts backed by well-researched social engineering to sophisticated advanced persistent threat campaigns in order to infiltrate networks and gain access to confidential information such as trade-secrets, research findings, and war strategies to name a few.

Cyberespionage and insider attacks (where a trusted insider is paid for carrying out parts of the attack) are also not uncommon. State-sponsored attacks have the potential to crumple entire nation-states when the right data is compromised.

Second, hacktivists. They are individuals or groups of individuals who use cyberattacks as a way of expressing political or ideological extremism.

Numerous cyberattacks have been carried out in the past as a means of expressing resistance. Launching large-scale distributed denial of service attacks to render government servers inaccessible and loading videos and images that criticize a state's policies on government websites are some of the most common methods hacktivists employ to make their voice heard. While hacktivism appears to be just a form of electronic civil disobedience without malicious intent, taking down networks of organizations that provide essential services such as hospitals can have devastating impact on citizens’ lives.

Popular

Mass poisonings cast doubt on free meals reforms

Much ado about asset forfeiture

New data rules could unlock cross-border data flows