What Motivates Hackers? [Infographic]

Year after year hackers are evolving with the growing technology landscape and learning more effective ways to get into your networks. From ransomware to cryptomining, these types of attacks are abusing system vulnerabilities in ways that weren’t fathomable years ago. Lucky for us, the power of data can help us decipher what hackers are after, who’s most at risk and how we can guard against these threats.

The industries most at risk have the most to lose. Healthcare organizations top the list as one of the most breached industries. Interestingly enough, their breaches are more often caused by human error than anything else. This is due to the fast-paced nature of most healthcare organizations for the benefit of quick and efficient patient care. The downside, however, is that it makes it easy for anyone to access it. This coupled with possible lack of cybersecurity training can create a dangerous opening for hackers. It only takes one opened email or one clicked link to compromise a less-than-secure database.

Healthcare organizations are actually a rare case. Most hacks in other industries are a result of external threats. For example, 99% of hackers in the accommodations and food services industry are external threats. These hackers are mainly after payment information and this was made clear after the large Marriott breach last year. In fact, 90% of hacks in the past year were motivated by financial gain and espionage, considerably higher compared to previous years where FIG (fun, ideology, grudge) was one of the top reasons.

Dig deeper into these different threats and hacking trends to see what and who poses a risk for your company’s data security.