Types of attackers:
- Hacktivism/Hacktivist (hacker activist):
- Hacking for political or socially motivated purposes.
- Often aimed at ensuring free speech, human rights, freedom of information movement.
- Famous attacks: Anonymous – DDOS attack on Visa, Mastercard, PayPal to protest the arrest of Julian Assange (WikiLeaks). Google/Twitter/SayNow worked together to provide communication for the Egyptian people when the government did an internet blackout during the 2011 protests.
- Governments:
- State sponsored hacking is common; often you see the attacks happening between the hours of 9 and 5 in that time zone; this is a day job.
- Approximately 120 countries have been developing ways to use the internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities.
- Famous attacks: US elections (Russia), Sony websites (N. Korea), Stuxnet (US/Israel), US Office of Personnel Management (China), …
