Honeypots: Tracking Hackers

Motives of Attackers

Recognizing attackers motivations can be of considerable assistance in understanding threats. To help understand motivational issues, counterintelligence agencies used the acronym MICE, for Money, Ideology, Compromise (caught doing something you don't want to be caught doing), and Ego. An adaptation of this acronym, developed by Dr. Max Kilger, MEECES, can be applied to the motivations driving computer attackers. In short, MEECES stands for Money, Ego, Entertainment, Cause (basic ideology), Entrance to a social group, and Status. Following are just some of the many different reasons why an attacker would target and attempt to compromise your systems. Almost all of these motives have been confirmed using honeypots.

Denial ...