With so many high-profile data breaches in the news and the arrest of several hacktivists associated with the group Anonymous, it's not surprising that there seems to be different views of cyber crime and hacktivism. Are they really that different from one another?
A recent report differentiated the two when reporting out on data breaches. The report noted that hacktivists were responsible for the majority of personal data that was swiped from public and private networks. The percentage of data taken was a computer break-in for political gains, not for financial gain. The report noted that in previous years the breaches were financial in nature.
The report noted that, "Activist groups produced their fair share of misery and mayhem final year...They stole much more information than any other group. Their entrance onto the stage also served to alter the landscape somewhat with regard towards the motivations behind breaches. Whilst great old-fashioned greed and avarice had been nonetheless the prime movers, ideological dissent and schadenfreude took a much more prominent function across the caseload."
The researched looked at well over 800 breach incidents around the globe that involved over 150 million records. They also received help from law enforcement officials from the U.S. the Netherlands, Australia, the U.K. and Ireland. The researchers looked at the motivation and found that in the majority of the cases it was to advance a political cause or to target organizations that they had issue with for political reasons. Not for financial profit.
But many think that the tactics and the end results are really the same. Especially for the targeted organization. The organization that lost or had data compromised is still has to correct the situation and make amends to their customers, patients or employees. Either way, these organizations should put a program of layered security technologies and policies into place. They must make employees use stronger passwords, use usb encyrption, and they have to educate the masses on the various methods hacktivists and common criminals use to infiltrate networks and acquire data.
A recent report differentiated the two when reporting out on data breaches. The report noted that hacktivists were responsible for the majority of personal data that was swiped from public and private networks. The percentage of data taken was a computer break-in for political gains, not for financial gain. The report noted that in previous years the breaches were financial in nature.
The report noted that, "Activist groups produced their fair share of misery and mayhem final year...They stole much more information than any other group. Their entrance onto the stage also served to alter the landscape somewhat with regard towards the motivations behind breaches. Whilst great old-fashioned greed and avarice had been nonetheless the prime movers, ideological dissent and schadenfreude took a much more prominent function across the caseload."
The researched looked at well over 800 breach incidents around the globe that involved over 150 million records. They also received help from law enforcement officials from the U.S. the Netherlands, Australia, the U.K. and Ireland. The researchers looked at the motivation and found that in the majority of the cases it was to advance a political cause or to target organizations that they had issue with for political reasons. Not for financial profit.
But many think that the tactics and the end results are really the same. Especially for the targeted organization. The organization that lost or had data compromised is still has to correct the situation and make amends to their customers, patients or employees. Either way, these organizations should put a program of layered security technologies and policies into place. They must make employees use stronger passwords, use usb encyrption, and they have to educate the masses on the various methods hacktivists and common criminals use to infiltrate networks and acquire data.
About the Author:
Oliver David writes and contributes for Data Security Weekly and other blogs on subjects like secure usb flash drive review and usb protection.
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