Different types of cyber attackers have overlapping motivations, although their origins differ. An example of this would be government-sponsored attackers and organized criminals, who have reasons to distribute malware despite their different end goals. The government-sponsored attackers may use the malware to infect bigger targets to steal credentials and state secrets. Alternatively, organized criminals have purely financial motivations and distribute malware to conduct extortion-based attacks such as ransomware infections or to steal valuable data to resell.

By understanding the reasons behind an attack, companies can develop more effective strategies for responding to and mitigating the impact of a cyber-attack. Unfortunately, budgets and personnel resources are limited, making it hard to provide the same level of defense across all resources. This can include implementing more robust security measures targeting specific resources, developing incident response plans, and working with law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cybercriminals.

Phishing

By taking over a legitimate domain, a hacker can create phishing websites that mimic the legitimate site and trick users into providing sensitive information, such as login credentials or credit card numbers.

Getting credentials leads to deeper attacks against the organization or can be the start of a credential-stuffing campaign. As users often reuse credentials, attackers gain access to other websites, allowing them access to financial information such as credit card numbers that may be stored there. This information is immediately helpful for cybercriminals, and any associated fraud stemming from this directly impacts customers with little effort by attackers. Cybercriminals can buy items and services within moments of stealing this information, maxing out card balances. When card anti-fraud services detect and halt this activity, the damage is already done, and the victim’s card is useless for days as the fraudulent activity is sorted.

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