Title: Assess the motivations of various threat actors.
Course: Cybersecurity in Family and Consumer Sciences, Advanced (19299-II) > Section: Examining Cyber Threats and Vulnerabilities

Assessment should include

- script kiddies—unskilled attackers who do not have the ability to discover new vulnerabilities or write exploit code and are dependent on the research and tools from others; goal is achievement; subgoals are to gain access and deface web pages
- hacktivists—attackers with primary goals of bringing attention to a social or political cause or seeking vengeance for what they consider to be a political or societal wrongdoing; skills of hacktivists can range from script kiddies to professional and/or sophisticated hackers
- malicious insiders—a disgruntled organization insider is a principal source of computer crime; insiders may not need a great deal of knowledge about computer intrusions because their knowledge of a target system often allows them to gain unrestricted access to cause damage to the system or to steal system data; insider threats also include outsourcing vendors as well as employees who accidentally introduce malware into systems
- criminal enterprises—attackers target systems for monetary gain; specifically, organized crime groups use spam, phishing, and spyware/malware to commit identity theft and online fraud; international corporate spies and organized crime organizations also pose a threat to the United States through their ability to conduct industrial espionage and large-scale monetary theft and to hire or develop hacker talent
- competitors or rogue corporations—organizations that engage in hacking against competitors with the intention of stealing intellectual property or gaining financial competitive advantages
- nation-state sponsored—goal is to weaken, disrupt, or destroy the United States; subgoals include espionage for attack purposes, espionage for technology advancement, disruption of infrastructure to attack the U.S. economy, full-scale attack of the infrastructure when attacked by the United States, to damage the ability of the United States to continue its attacks
- ideological militants.

Process/Skill Questions:

Thinking

- What is a threat actor?
- Why is it important to identify the motivation of a threat actor?

Communication

- Who should be informed of identified threat actors?
- What communication skills are helpful in identifying the motivations of threat actors?

Leadership

- How can leaders encourage policies and procedures to protect against threat actors?
- What factors should be considered when a leader determines how to respond to a threat actor?

Management

- What data is used to determine the motivation of a threat actor?
- What lessons have been learned from studying the motivations of past cybersecurity threat actors?

Teacher Resource:

- Industrial Control System Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT)