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Possible Reasons Of Cyberattacks In The Energy Sector Explained!

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In this era of digitalization where smart gadgets such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc. rule the world of communication, business development, and have an impact on almost everyone’s lives, certain threats come along which the users must know. The cyberattacks 2021 cases top the criteria of being one of the major threats which cannot be left unseen as this will result in you being a victim of data theft or privacy breach.

In this article, we will discuss in detail the cyberattacks, the reason behind such attacks, the hackers or the criminals involved in such illegal activities along with the examples of cyberattacks in the energy sector, oil industry, etc. This illuminates the harmful effects of cyberattacks and provides an overall awareness.

What is a Cyber Attack?

The cyberattack definition is that any attempt to gain unapproved access to the device, computing system, or compute cluster with the intention of causing harm. Cyber attacks strive to disable, disrupt, destroy, or control computer networks, as well as to modify, restrict, disable, exploit, or steal information stored on these systems. This cyberattack definition denotes that launching such harmful attacks is possible from anywhere and at any time, by either a group of people or an individual. Every cyber attacker has a unique or distinct strategy that they adopt to choose a target and make gain by exploiting them.

Those involved in cyberattacks are the cybercriminals, hackers, or bad actors, who possess high computing skills to design, create, and execute malicious or harmful attacks on computer systems or clusters. They include individual hackers working alone or a team of threat actors working for a similar criminal cause by finding the weaknesses of the targets for their criminal gain. Such acts are dangerous as they can exploit data, monitor transactions, hack social media accounts, or corrupt the entire system such that it becomes unusable.

Cyberattacks at higher levels are very severe as the level of damage is usually high, and there are different types of cyberattacks. Businesses of every kind that involve gadgets and connectivity to internet facilities, cloud storage, etc. are prone to a cyberattack that might simply ruin their entire functioning. As it allows exposure of the confidential pieces of information, banking transactions, information technology infrastructure, agreements or deals, etc. to the hacker whose intentions are to make a profit by exploiting the details or data. Also, governmental entities when attacked prove to be a threat to the entire state or country. This is similar to a war waged by enemies or attackers where instead of a real battle, the fight aims to protect data breaches from such attackers to ensure privacy as well as protection.

What are the Reasons Behind Cyberattacks in the Energy Sector?

The main aim of cyberattacks is to cause damage to the particular target however their objective or motive might differ. Here are some of the common reasons behind such attacks or breaches, which might help to understand their motive:

1. Financial Gain

Cyberattacks mostly occur to commercial entities or businesses with the motive of financial gain as it is an easy money laundering method using technology to hide their identity. For financial gain, the hackers target sensitive or confidential data, transaction credentials, debit or credit card details, personal information of the business owner or employee, etc. which is later used by the cyber attackers or virtual criminals to trade them for monetary gains. The victim has no other choice but to compromise in such situations unless proper help is available to tackle the situation.

Apart from these reasons, other motives behind financial gain hacking are the possibility of disabling or altering the functioning of the target computer system or cluster of systems such that even their owners cannot access it unless the hackers allow them to. It denies access to data, software, or applications until the demands of the cyber attackers such as ransoms or other benefits are met. The attack could also mean to gain or breach the privacy of valuable data related to corporate secrets, such as the total proprietary data, which, unlike the usual blackmailing, involves the usage of technology as a weapon.

2. Revenge or vengeance of rivalry party

The threat actors or bad actors involved in such acts of offense simply create havoc or confusion that is in other terms gain for the rival group of the target. The discontent or mistrust will affect the business functioning as the structural flaws make them vulnerable to future breaches also. Another motive is to embarrass the target entity by damaging their reputation in front of the public or the market, hence reducing their brand value. So, most of these attacks might seem to focus on governmental bodies but non-governmental organizations or companies are not safe either.

Those attackers who tend to damage national data security are called hacktivists or hacking activists who show their opposition in the form of attack protests. This criterion includes secretive groups and hacker activists on a global scale such as the Anonymous group. Such attacks have a higher damage percentage when supported by inside trade where the employees with ill intent join them.

3. Cyberwarfare

Cyberattacks in the energy sector or other parts of governmental organizations are usually the results of cyber warfare by other countries or governments that attack them as part of political disputes, economic issues, and other social problems. Such warfare practice is known as cyberwarfare.

How do These Cyber Attacks Work?

The cyber attacks can either be untargeted where the aim is to affect as many devices as possible or specifics targeted where the particular device is targeted to break into. For a large number of devices, the common cyber-attack techniques include the phishing attack which is the method of providing the users with malicious links that upon accessing will provide the entire device control to the hacker. For target-specific attacks, the tools differ based on their objectives.

In this article, we have discussed cyber security attacks along with the reasons behind such damage-causing breaches or cyberattacks in the energy sector, government, or other organizations. Hope this information was useful in understanding the technological attack of which everyone must be aware.

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