Cyberwarfare or Hacktivism? Understanding the Cyber Threats to Your Business
As our digital landscape continues to evolve and political threats from all sides continue to rise domestically and internationally, it’s clear that cyber threats can affect your business in many forms. The two most talked-about ones, which are often mistakenly seen as interchangeable, include cyberwarfare and hacktivism. While both of these forms of cyber threats involve malicious activity, the motivations, tactics, and scale differ quite significantly. Cyberware is typically state-sponsored and aims to disrupt critical infrastructure for strategic or political gain, while hacktivism is driven by ideological or social causes, targeting specific organizations to raise awareness or protest issues. Understanding the differences between cyberwarfare and hacktivism can help your business better prepare for significant risks.
What’s the Difference Between Cyberwarfare and Hacktivism?
Think of cyberwarfare as digital warfare between nations. It’s usually state-sponsored and focused on targeting power grids, communication systems, and other critical infrastructure for political and strategic advantage. Hacktivists target companies or governments that they believe are acting unethically in order to raise awareness or spark change. While cyberwarfare is more strategic and calculated, hacktivism acts as a digital protest to make a point rather than actively destabilize nations.
How Can Cyber Warfare or Hacktivism Affect Businesses?
We’ve seen both cyberwarfare and hacktivism impact telecommunications, retail, satellite companies, and other industries and governments in various ways. Cyberwarfare can be used to disrupt communications, disable satellite networks, and spy on sensitive data, making telecommunications and satellite companies prime targets for cyber attacks. Retail businesses may also see their supply chains or payment systems attacked to weaken overall economic stability. One business affects another and leads to a domino effect of instability.
Hacktivism, while usually more cause-driven, typically targets telecommunications companies for privacy concerns and retail companies for unethical practices. Think of website defacements or purposeful data leaks. Even if you legitimately believe your company hasn’t done anything that warrants privacy concerns or unethical practices, a hacktivist can view that gray moral scale quite differently. A satellite company couldbe targeted over issues like surveillance.
Expert Cyberwarfare and Hacktivism Insight From Our Chief Information Security Officer
In short, hacktivism protests specific issues, while cyber warfare aims to destabilize. In the words of Kristopher “Kris” Kortright, our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at GTSaaS, who has personally led Team OneFist in the fight in the cyber war against Russia to help Ukraine win back their land and their people, “The danger of cyberwar (versus hacktivism) is with intent and motivation more than anything else. Hacktivism comes from the mindset of wanting to break into places but not necessarily cause great harm. Sometimes, they do when they release (leak) internal company data, which can result in great harm to that company.
“The cyberwar mindset is of destruction and maximum damage. Unethical cyber warriors have the absolute intent to steal all company data and also destroy the systems, routers, and machines of a business. Hacktivism is associated with a desire to not kill or destroy, [whereas] cyberwar includes both.
“Hacktivists have no reason to attack SCADA systems, for example, as doing so can only create disasters and even death. Cyber warriors seek SCADA out as the best target to find.
“A real-world example would be driving a car. Even speed racers do not intend harm to others or themselves, and everyone has access to cars. Using that car as a 2,000+ Lbs battering ram to kill people is how that car becomes a weapon of war. Build the car up to a tank, and both the weapon and the human become formidable. ”While cyber warfare and hacktivism both present serious risks to businesses, governments, and our nation, their motivation and methods are clearly distinct. Understanding these differences can help your organization remain proactive and strengthen its cybersecurity measures.
Mitigate Your Cybersecurity Threats with GTSaaS
We can help you regularly assess vulnerabilities and stay informed about the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. Contact us today to see how we can help prepare your business or organization for various cybersecurity threats. Don’t wait for an incident to happen. Take action now to protect your assets and your business’s reputation.
