Though hacktivism has become well known, the practice has evolved significantly in just the past five years. When hacktivism first began, attacks were fairly simple and largely focused on denial of service. Though annoying, these attacks were largely overlooked by customers once a website was successfully back online. More recently, however, hacktivists have begun deploying much more organized, sophisticated attacks. These are much less likely to be forgotten by customers, as they are aimed at breaching a company’s security and stealing the data most likely to damage the reputation and credibility of the enterprise or, even worse, air customers’ dirty laundry.
Unlike other hackers who are generally after a company’s data for monetary reasons, hacktivists have the explicit goal of tarnishing a company’s brand. This motivation is the scariest part of the practice – hacktivists are not going to just break in and steal account information. They’re going to find the most embarrassing thing possible for the company or its customers and release it to the world.