Hacktivist Groups
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The term hacker is often used to describe a security hacker, someone who uses their computer programming knowledge to create bugs and other exploits that allow them to break into computer systems.
The stereotypical hacker is an anti-social, quiet, energy drink enthusiast that stays up through all hours coding away to seek revenge on some evil corporation. Now in some cases this may be true, but today, hackers are a very diverse group of people. The only commonality between hackers is their creative style of critical thinking which allows them to break into secure and protected networks.
In todays communication prevalent society, most hackers, even those that want to maintain a degree of anonymity, work in groups to accomplish their goals.
Additionally, their is a large spectrum of hackers. The given terms are white hat, those who hack into systems for good and often legally, and black hat, those who are doing so illegally and often to inflict some sort of damage, hackers. There are then limitless shades of grey, dependent on one's point of view and beliefs.
Some of the most prominent hacking groups in today's society
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Cybercrime causes $455 billion in damage to the global economy a year.
The grey horizontal line below is set to 455 to represent the economic damage caused by hackers as studied in The Global Risks Report in 2016. Then the market caps of 10 of the largest companies in the United States found by Kenneth Kiesnoski are shown as a comparison to see devastating this number truly is.