Information Security Case Analysis: 500 words.

· Attackers can be internal or external to the network.

· They are often referred to as hackers.

Categories of Attackers

· Hackers

· Recreational hackers: For these individuals, hacking is a hobby and they often do not think about the consequences of their actions. They enjoy learning and exploring.

· Opportunistic hackers: These individual are unlikely to initiate an attack out of fear of getting caught, but if opportunity presents itself and there is little risk of discovery, they may act.

· Professional hackers: These are criminals for whom hacking may be a career.

· Internal Attackers

· Disgruntled employees: These attackers may feel they have been wronged by the organization. They may engage in criminal activity or cause disruption.

· Contract workers: They typically have no loyalty to the organization; therefore, they are more likely to act unethically if it is within their nature to do so.

· Hackers: Some employees may fall into one of the three types of hackers described above.

Motivations

· Hacking for Financial Gain

· Financial gain may be immediate, such as transferring funds to an account controlled by the hacker or theft of credit card information for personal use.

· Hackers may acquire assets; such as credit card data, trade secrets, or corporate documents, in order to sell them to interested parties.

· Hackers may sell their services to others. These services include:

· Denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks

· Spam distribution

· Password cracking

· Eavesdropping

· Hacking for Personal Reasons

· Some hackers find risk of getting caught thrilling.

· Some hackers enjoy the challenge and look upon it as a game.

· Others enjoy the ego boost from having power over network defenders.

· Some are simply bored and use hacking as a form of entertainment.

· Some may use hacking as a means of furthering a political or social agenda (i.e.; “hacktivism”).

· Some may hack as a means of revenge.

· Hacking for Status

· Hackers have peers and social groups.

· Peer pressure may motivate hackers of low social order.

· Frequent hacking may be required to maintain membership.

· Successful attacks may raise a hacker’s social status.

· These motivations apply to hacking groups as well as individual hackers.