The root of all evil

80% of all human endeavour is committed to making money, with the remaining 20% spent finding interesting ways to spend it. These are figures that I’ve just made up, but I said it in the Bulletproof office, and everyone nodded, which either means it speaks a certain truth or, once again, everyone is doing their best to ignore me. With this in mind, it’s fair to say people tend not to put a lot of effort into something unless they know they’re going to be financially rewarded for it. This includes hacking.

Whilst there are undoubtedly those who just hack for fun, the majority of malicious hacking is done, unsurprisingly, for financial gain. There are a lot of ways someone with a certain set of cyber skills can make money. The above-board way is to become a penetration tester, which can lead to a long, lucrative and satisfying career. However there are those who embrace the dark side become a hacker – and there’s a lot of ways a hacker can monetise their misdeeds.

From simple, age-old tactics to clever new strategies, there’s a lot that keeps the hackers’ economy afloat. Remember, most hackers are going to give all of them a go at the same time, so you need to be alert.