Hacker types, motivations and strategies: A comprehensive framework

Abstract

Understanding and predicting cyber malfeasance is an emerging area of research with the increase in cybercrimes and heightened awareness about cybersecurity in recent years. The nature of cybercrimes is also becoming increasingly complex as hackers are more proficient and well-financed than earlier. Thus, our understanding of the various types of hackers and their motivations needs to be consistently updated. We identified and reviewed 11 classifications and typologies of hackers and their motivations published over three decades to consolidate our understanding in this area and summarize the state of the art. Following that, we present a unified framework of 13 hacker types and 7 unique motivations. In addition, we detail the strategies each hacker type typically employs. This framework, applicable to various domains, allows readers to map various motivations to each hacker type and understand that hackers often hold multiple motivations at once. It also allows for the identification of specific hacker types based on the strategies used during a cyberattack.

Keywords

• Cybersecurity
• Cyberpsychology
• Hacker
• Motivation
• Cyberattack
• Typology