User:NatashaVij/sandbox

A threat actor or malicious actor either a person or a group of people that take part in an action that is intended to cause harm to the cyber realm including: computers, devices, systems, or networks. The term is typically used to describe individuals or groups that perform malicious acts against an organization of any type or size. Threat actors engage in cyber related offenses to exploit open vulnerabilities and disrupt operations. Threat actors come from a wide range of backgrounds and have different educational backgrounds, skills, and resources. The frequency and classification of cyber attacks changes rapidly. The background of threat actors helps dictate who they target, how they attack, and what information they seek. There are a number of threat actors including: cyber criminals. nation-state actors, ideologues, thrill seekers, insiders, and competitors. These threat actors all have distinct motivations, techniques, targets, and use of stolen data.

List of threat actors
Threat actors at a number of levels are able to carry out impactful events; whether their goal is to collect data or conduct an offensive attack. There are a number of threat actors in the cyber realm that aim to cause harm to computer systems. Threat actors typically find a vulnerability in a system and enter a system for a number of motives. However, different threat actors infiltrate systems to access different data sources. Threat actors can be broken down into six different categories: cyber criminals, nation-state actors, ideologues (hacktivist and terrorists), thrill seekers, insiders, and competitors.

Cyber Criminals
Cyber criminals have two main objectives. First, they want to take infiltrate a system to access valuable data or items. Second, they want to ensure that they avoid legal consequence after infiltrating a system. Cyber criminals can include both state sponsored and non-state sponsored actors. There are a number of cyber criminals.

Motives
Some threat actors commit cyber crimes on a part-time basis to

Nation-state actors commit crimes to accomplish a goal on behalf of the state