Psychological Aspects of Cybersecurity



Psychological Aspects of Cybersecurity

Motivational Factors for Hackers

Motivation is the most important attribute of human psychology. Based on the interviews given by hackers it is assumed that there is an internal motivation factor for most of the hackers. Self urge to complete a task, the thrill of involvement and the feeling of satisfaction that one earns when the goals are met is what we define as intrinsic motivational factors (Voiskounsky and Smyslova, 2003).

Few hackers believe that information must be freely accessible for all. They often break into computer systems of translational companies and provide passwords to the users so that they can easily use the new programs or software of a company. Other hackers want to make money by stealing the information. Another strong motivational factor is the involvement of the hacker with any ethnic or political group which forces them to hack the sites of the opposition.

Another factor for hacking is the cordial and harmonious feelings that a hacker wants to maintain with the other hacking communities. Few hackers upload images or words on websites just to gain attention of their partners. Ego is believed to be another motivational factor and a prime one for hackers (Jin Woo, 2003). Identifying and Mitigating Hacker Threats

Organizations need to focus on some areas for reducing the attacking threats posed by hackers.. One area on which organizations should focus to lessen the attacks is to enable a particularly small number of hosts on the external visible system. It is a must to secure the hosts and to patch up against the rising threats on a frequent basis. Secondly organizations could harden up their internal systems against attacks by adopting the actions like training users not to open attachments without confirmation from the sender. Proper installation of virus checkers on all the systems must be ensured plus their regular up gradation (Mallya, 2011). A regular check for the viruses must be made by the organization on their internal hosts, firewalls and e-mail servers. Difference in the Profiles of Ethical and Non-Ethical Hackers

There is a lot of difference between ethical and non-ethical hacker; one serves to protect a company's business secrets, whereas the later serves as a threat to an organization. Ethical hackers are well qualified individuals with the sole objective of protecting the systems of their organization from all such problems that could arise. They are also called the white hats. They have got excellent computer skills and ensure pre-preventive measures of all the computer systems from such threats, which if not tackled could be damaging.

Ethical hackers could serve as permanent full time employees or as consulting agents hired for the same cause. They are completely trustworthy people. They are not pompous about their achievements. White hats have got legal access to highly sensitive information whereas non-ethical hackers or black hats access everything illegally for self profits. Black hats are not necessarily well educated or skillful, but if they are then they pose a more serious ...