What Are Attackers After?

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

What you'll walk away with

Understand what attackers are after, without any of the intimidation
Apply this concept right away in real-world scenarios
Learn to avoid security risks for both yourself and others

Let's think about this for a second

Most attackers' motivations fall into one of four buckets: money (ransomware, fraud, selling stolen card data), data (selling personal info, industrial espionage), access (hijacking devices to use as a botnet), and reputation/politics (website defacement, disinformation). An individual user might think 'I've got nothing worth stealing,' but if you reuse passwords, your account can be used as a stepping stone into other services.

Let's connect this to a real scenario

A small business often thinks, 'We're not a big company, why would anyone attack us?' In reality, small businesses tend to invest less in security, which makes them easy targets — automated scanning tools don't pick targets manually, they just scan for vulnerable servers wherever they can find them. Assuming 'we can't be a target' is one of the most dangerous mindsets you can have.

Motivations — money, data, access, reputation
Small target does not mean safe target
Automated scanning bots don't pick targets manually

Let's walk through it together

text

Common attacker motivations
---------------------------
Money      → ransomware, fraud, stolen card data
Data       → personal info, corporate secrets
Access     → botnet, steppingstone to bigger target
Reputation → defacement, disinformation, activism

You should see

When you read an attack news story, you'll be able to guess the motivation behind it.

Try it in 5 minutes

Pick a recent cyber attack story you've heard about and write down which of the four motivations it matches.

A quick word of caution

If you reuse the same password across services, a leak at one service puts all your other accounts at risk too.

Easy traps

Assuming 'I could never be a target'
Thinking attackers ignore small-scale users or businesses

Now try it yourself

Pick a recent cyber attack story you've heard about and write down which of the four motivations it matches.

You'll know it worked when: When you read an attack news story, you'll be able to guess the motivation behind it.