The rise of the cyber hacker - does clout matter more than cash?

Date:
Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:24:51 +0000

Description:
Cybercriminals chase notoriety, reshaping threats as disruption eclipses profit in 2026, across industries worldwide increasingly.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news
and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter If one thing defined 2025, it was the proliferation of cyber-attacks. Unbiased to sector or industry, these breaches varied in method, impact and motive,
making them difficult to predict and causing havoc for those affected.

One recent government report suggests that almost half of British businesses (43 per cent) and three in 10 charities (30 per cent) claimed to have
suffered a type of cybersecurity breach or attack in the past year, a huge uptick compared to previous years. James Hughes Social Links Navigation

VP of Solutions Engineering and Enterprise CTO at Rubrik. As recent attacks from groups like Scattered Spider show, financial gain is no longer the only motivator. Disruption and status are now as valuable to hackers as money, as seen with the controversial attack on nursery firm Kido, which saw data and imagery from young children published on the dark web with a hefty ransom. Article continues below You may like AI powers innovation but its also powering the next wave of cyber attacks The human paradox at the center of modern cyber resilience From boardroom risk to deal flow: why cyber M&A is accelerating in 2026

For many upcoming hackers, notoriety and social validation are becoming the new currency of cybercrime.

As we start the new year, its crucial that CISOs widen the net and factor in these less rational, status-driven motives when preparing for attacks. Reputation and clout are driving behavior in cybercrime communities A growing subset driven by risk-taking and creating chaos-for-chaos sake is reshaping the threat landscape.

Attacks are increasingly becoming performative, not just transactional, with the impact of the attack mattering just as much as the payout. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get
all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

By targeting infrastructure that will rock the boat the most, like zoning in on high profile companies or causing operational chaos, hackers are seeking out ways to gain reputational returns in underground forums.

One reason for this need for notoriety is to accelerate a hacking career.
Well known handlers use high profile attacks just like most people would a
CV, with clout buying more opportunity for collaboration .

With encrypted channels like Discord and Telegram a hotbed for social validation, the escalation of an attack is encouraged in the community. What to read next Why are cybercriminals getting younger? When confidence becomes
a risk: The gap between cyber resilience readiness and reality AI is breaking the prevention first mindset: Why rapid recovery now matters more than ever

This ties into the need for brand recognition, something that applies to hackers too. Certain groups behave like media-savvy brands, cultivating recognizable names, logos, and narratives to spread awareness.

Everyone in the industry knows of Scattered Spider, the group that hijacked the much-loved British heritage retail giants causing mass disruption.

Perhaps most importantly, the more reputable a hack, the less the specific outcome of the breach itself tends to matter.

If the target is high profile but doesnt result in financial gain, something that will become more common as companies are encouraged to not pay ransoms, the hack can still be considered a win in the community. How organizations should approach threat modelling and resilience When an adversary isnt just after money, and the motives are based on causing as much trouble as
possible, CISOs need to adapt their methods for pre-empting an attack.

Threat models that focus on why an attacker might target a company break down when the motivation is just about visibility. Organizations must model
maximum plausible impact and consider what reputational triggers they might have to prepare for the worst.

This means building in an assumption of disruption-first attacks into resilience planning, ensuring even the most irrational behavior is
considered.

The unpredictable nature of status driven attacks means threat models need to include scenarios where the attacker burns access, deletes data , or
escalates a breach simply because they can.

It would be easy to assume that lesser known brands or firms are of less risk to these status driven attacks think again. Hackers wont discriminate by the balance sheet.

Smaller firms, public services, and operationally sensitive but low-revenue organizations are attractive precisely because disruption is easier and reputational fallout is public. 2025 was brutal, 2026 will be worse putting cyber resilience into action With it becoming even harder to predict the nature of a cyber attack, prevention alone is an insufficient means of protection. You cannot deter an adversary who isnt rationally weighing risk against reward.

The cyber industry needs to move away from a defensive posture that focuses
on keeping bad players out at all costs, and pivot towards a plan that
expects an attack, ensuring a fast recovery once the breach has happened.

The real control is in the speed of recovery. If the goal for an attacker is notoriety, then they win by maximizing visible disruption time. Ensuring a rapid recovery, clean restores and operational resilience that allows
business continuity directly undercuts the attackers status payoff.

When it comes to cyber security , the gloves are off. We must learn to expect the unexpected, plan for the unthinkable and aim to be one step ahead of the cyber criminals - its now a matter of when, not if, a firm faces a high profile breach. We've featured the best encryption software. This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro



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