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TopShifting Trends In The Threat Landscape
Leeson & Coyne (2005) cite a number of papers (Blake, 1994; Sterling, 1991; Taylor, 1999; Thomas, 2002) that suggest fame or peer recognition as the primary reason for hacking. The following quote from Bruce Sterling’s hacker classic “The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier” makes this point (Sterling, 1991):
Hackers can be shy, even reclusive, but when they do talk, hackers tend to brag, boast and strut. Almost everything hackers do is INVISIBLE [sic]; if they don't brag, boast, and strut about it, then NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW [sic]. If you don't have something to brag, boast, and strut about, then nobody in the underground will recognize you and favor you with vital cooperation and respect. The way to win a solid reputation in the underground is by telling other hackers things that could only have been learned by exceptional cunning and stealth… Hackers hoard this knowledge, and dwell upon it obsessively, and refine it, and bargain with it, and talk and talk about it.
However, in the last five years, a clear shift in the motivation of attacks towards financial gain and away from ‘bragging rights’ has become apparent (CSI, 2007; Gartner, 2006). The annual Computer Security Institute (CSI) survey reported the following in its 2007 edition: