BotNet News

The latest threat news about cyber attacks, including phishing, ransomware, APTs, malware and more. Learn how to identify, mitigate and stop these threats from impacting your organization.

Financial Gain

The most common motivator for a cyber attack is to steal sensitive information or money from victims, either for extortion or dark-web resale. This includes the theft of financial assets like bank accounts, payment systems and cryptocurrency wallets as well as data and intellectual property like customer records, product designs and proprietary research for sale or profit. Critical infrastructure and government systems are also targets, with attackers able to disrupt services that people rely on – like healthcare services, energy grids or transportation networks – or even compromise national security.

Personal Reasons

Some cyber attacks are launched for personal reasons, such as a disgruntled employee who wants to damage an employer they feel treated them unfairly. Other attackers, known as white-hat hackers, may attack for the fun of it or for the intellectual challenge of breaching a system. Regardless of their motives, a successful attack can have devastating consequences for an organization, from brand reputation to revenue growth. Data breaches can undermine consumer trust and tarnish the image of a company that took years to build. And the disruption of business operations can cause ripples across the supply chain and give cybercriminals a foothold in partner networks to launch more sophisticated attacks. This is why it’s so important for businesses to take advantage of cyber threat intelligence to protect their environments.