What motivates hackers?
Understanding what drives hackers is key to strengthening your company's defenses. After all, we have to know our enemies in order to be able to work as best as possible with security ourselves. The motivation behind cyber attacks can vary, but often there are three factors that play a role: financial gain, the pursuit of information they can use or sell, and pure destructive desire.
For many hackers, financial motivation is the primary driving force. Many companies, including yours, are sitting on lots of valuable data, customer information and financial resources that make you attractive targets. In addition, some hackers want to gain competitive advantage by stealing company secrets or information about upcoming products.
The search for information is another common motivation. Hackers may be interested in obtaining sensitive information, such as personal data or trade secrets, in order to sell or exploit it in various ways. The more valuable the information, the greater the chance that your company will become a potential target.
Sometimes the hacker's motivation is not driven by economics, but by pure destructive desire. This can be in the form of sabotage, blackmail or vandalism. The National Security Agency deals with a lot of this type of attack and writes well about the current risk picture in its report from 2023. The report is called Risk. Read the report here.
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Protect yourself from potential attacks
1. Address your safety culture: A strong security culture is essential to protect the company against cyber attacks. Training employees in security procedures, the importance of updates and practicing sneaky tricks from hackers. Your people are your defence. Over 80% of attacks are given the opportunity to execute due to human error.
2. Keep the software up to date, all the time: Developers regularly release updates to close security holes. Keeping your software, operating systems and anti-virus software up-to-date at all times is an effective and affordable way to reduce vulnerabilities internally.
3. Strong password habits: Implement a strict password routine that includes complex passwords, regular password changes, and the use of two-factor authentication. This quickly becomes a habit for people. Having these things in place reduces the risk of unauthorized access even if passwords are compromised.
4. Monitoring and Discovery: Implement systems for monitoring and early detection of unusual activity on your equipment and systems. This makes it possible to respond quickly to potential threats before they have a chance to cause damage.
5. Backup and contingency plan: Regular data backup is essential. It cannot be talked about enough. In the event of a successful attack, this provides the ability to recover your company's information without paying a ransom to your attackers. The emergency plan is there to help you when you are in the middle of a crisis. It can be difficult to think clearly in such situations, so we recommend having clear lists ready for who does what, how you will do it and where you will handle it.
6. Third party risk assessment: Most have suppliers and customers in the company that they depend on. If your company collaborates with such third parties, you should ensure that you carry out a thorough risk assessment of their security procedures. Often third parties provide the perfect gateway for you because their security procedures are not in place.
Want to read more safety tips? Take a look at the rest of our BLOG.
You can be attacked indiscriminately
In today's digital landscape, it is no longer a question of if, but when, businesses like yours will face threats from hackers. Recognizing that you are a potential target is the first step you can take to protect yourself. Keeping in mind what motivates hackers and implementing security practices that your people stand behind can reduce the risk of cyber attacks and secure the future for you all.
Therefore, our clear recommendation is to take control of your digital security today! Invest in training, updates and a proactive approach to cyber threats. It can make you no longer a potential target.
