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A cyber threat is any malicious attack designed to steal or disrupt critical IT systems, devices and software. The impact of a successful attack can range from financial loss, damage to reputation or, in extreme cases, the ability to deliver products and services. Attackers’ motives vary, ranging from profit and political activism to industrial espionage or personal grievances. Most attacks, however, can be grouped into three broad categories:

Criminal: The most common cyber threats are motivated by straightforward financial gain. These include malware like ransomware, which encrypts data and demands payment, and phishing, where attackers target individuals or organizations with deceptive tactics to trick users into sharing private information. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are another type of nefarious cyber activity, where attackers flood targeted networks with traffic to render them unusable for legitimate users.

Political: Political motivations also fuel a significant slice of cyber attacks. State-sponsored campaigns and long-term cyber-espionage operations probe critical infrastructure, government networks and even election systems. And hacktivists, individual hackers or loose collectives, infiltrate networks to spotlight a cause or embarrass an adversary.

National security remains an important driver for cyber threat activities as well. Hostile nation-states can expose classified information, disrupt critical infrastructure and interfere with democratic processes. In addition, advanced cyber threat actors are gaining capabilities to disrupt, destroy or threaten the delivery of essential services and goods.