{
	"id": "7717f963-9eaa-42ec-bebb-0e0ba804eee8",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T01:30:02.898157Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:49.377631Z",
	"deleted_at": null,
	"sha1_hash": "2a1cdf177e381a3541a0a1b0fe3d35bc2825c826",
	"title": "What Is a Cyber Threat Actor? Definition, Types, Examples | Proofpoint US",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_size": 36422,
	"plain_text": "What Is a Cyber Threat Actor? Definition, Types, Examples |\r\nProofpoint US\r\nPublished: 2022-07-04 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:18:21 UTC\r\nThere are several types of threat actors. Typically, each type has a specific goal, whether it’s financial, espionage\r\nor simply to destroy your data. Understanding the different types of threat actors helps you build better detection\r\nmethods and investigate possible attacks.\r\nFinancially Motivated Actors\r\nThe vast majority of cyber threat actors are financially motivated, regardless of their preferred mode of attack.\r\nThey may distribute banking Trojans or other forms of malware to directly steal from financial websites, or they\r\nmay use phishing to steal credentials and log in to bank or brokerage accounts. Some threat actors seek to profit\r\nby stealing data and either selling it or charging money to return it. And some highly sophisticated actors make use\r\nof ransomware to lock up an organization’s IT infrastructure until a payment is made.\r\nCyber Terrorists\r\nCyber terrorists can target businesses, governments, or a country’s infrastructure. They are given the name for the\r\ndisruption they can cause to entire communities. A cyber terrorist’s goal is usually to harm a country’s residents\r\nand businesses, resulting in economic and physical harm.\r\nAdvanced Persistent Threat (APT) Actors\r\nAdvanced persistent threat (APT) actors are commonly aligned with a country’s government and may be backed\r\nby that government either financially, with other resources, or may even be officially a part of the government.\r\nState-sponsored threats are generally targeted and motivated by espionage, looking to support the intelligence\r\ngathering priorities of their aligned government organizations. At times, these cyber threat actors may use\r\nmalware to gain access to a target’s accounts or target an opposing country’s infrastructure and steal information.\r\nAPT actors target a variety of sectors across the globe.\r\nHacktivists\r\nHackers sometimes target governments and businesses based on opposition to their target’s ideology.\r\n“Anonymous” is a popular hacktivist group made up of people from all over the world, but other hacktivists might\r\nwork alone. These threat actors are generally not financially motivated, seeking to damage data or infrastructure\r\nfor political reasons. They can be external or insider threats focused on performing malicious activities and\r\ndisrupting normal business productivity.\r\nInsiders\r\nhttps://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/nighthawk-and-coming-pentest-tool-likely-gain-threat-actor-notice\r\nPage 1 of 2\n\nMany corporations make the mistake of trusting any activity from employees or hired contractors. For example,\r\nan insider threat could be a newly disgruntled employee or a person who purposely targets a business or\r\ngovernment. Competitor governments or businesses pay insiders to steal intellectual property and trade secrets,\r\nbut some insider threats aim to simply do damage to their employer. Insider threats have become more common in\r\nrecent years, inflicting the most damage and being the most difficult to detect since they have legitimate access to\r\ninfrastructure and data.\r\nScript Kiddies\r\nNot every threat actor is a skilled attacker. Many scripts, code repositories and malware are freely downloadable\r\nfor anyone to use. These cyber threat actors are colloquially known as “script kiddies” since they usually don’t\r\nhave the technical skills to code or exploit vulnerabilities. Even without coding and hacking skills, script kiddies\r\ncan still harm an organization’s productivity and private data. A script kiddie can also unknowingly add malware\r\nto the environment, thinking they are downloading tools they can control.\r\nInternal User Mistakes\r\nInsider threats don’t always have malicious intent, but the damage they cause can be just as bad as intentionally\r\ntargeting the business with an attack. Usually, unintentional damage from an insider threat is associated with\r\nphishing. External attackers send phishing emails to insiders, tricking them into opening a malicious attachment or\r\naccessing a web page that tricks a targeted employee into divulging their credentials. Because the employee has\r\nlegitimate access to data, insider threat actors can reveal extensive sensitive data to an attacker.\r\nSource: https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/nighthawk-and-coming-pentest-tool-likely-gain-threat-actor-notice\r\nhttps://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/nighthawk-and-coming-pentest-tool-likely-gain-threat-actor-notice\r\nPage 2 of 2",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"Malpedia"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/nighthawk-and-coming-pentest-tool-likely-gain-threat-actor-notice"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"nighthawk-and-coming-pentest-tool-likely-gain-threat-actor-notice"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775439002,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791249,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
	"files": {
		"pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2a1cdf177e381a3541a0a1b0fe3d35bc2825c826.pdf",
		"text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2a1cdf177e381a3541a0a1b0fe3d35bc2825c826.txt",
		"img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2a1cdf177e381a3541a0a1b0fe3d35bc2825c826.jpg"
	}
}