Threat Agent Influence
According to the target architecture (fig 5), the AppMaker implements a customer-facing store that manages customer financial transactions. I consider the system vulnerable because of the presence of a direct public connection that cybercriminals might penetrate. The threat agents that target the system are the ones interested in the financial benefits contributed by the financial information. Organization financial information is considered sensitive and confidential because it is a target for cybercriminals. The motivation for a hacking organization system that handles financial transactions is money (Stokel-Walker, 2019). The threat agents use customers’ financial information in blackmailing them as a way of extorting them money. Threat agents understand that financial information is critical to the user, and they can make more profits.
Threat agents also target financial information because of the influence of its financial benefits. Client financial details are crucial and confidential, but a threat agent might use them in identity theft. It is possible to use a user’s financial information to access their bank accounts to withdraw money and also borrow loans on their behalf (Ebrary.net, 2014). Identity theft motivates cybercriminals to look for vulnerabilities in the customer-facing store to make profits. The organization website might be hacked by the threat agents to purchase products for no price or steal by faking warranty replacement of products (Ebrary.net, 2014). The idea gives the criminals a financial motive where they sell the products on the market price, making a 100% profit.
Moreover, the availability of sensitive financial information that threat agents can access from such a system motivates them to hack and steal the data for personal monetary gain. Hackers steal the data and look for individuals or firms that are interested and ready to buy financial information to achieve their malicious objective. The potential customers of stolen financial transactions are the store competitors that are looking for a competitive advantage against the business. The goal of each threat agent is a financial reward (Stokel-Walker, 2019). The security researcher also might take advantage of the access to financial information during threat identification and blackmail the company to pay more for the services. Security researchers may intentionally fail to report cases of vulnerabilities to benefit from the customers’ financial information. Researchers might be given more access to organization data during the vulnerability identification process, but they use the opportunity to gain profit from customers’ financial wallet using their credentials. Researchers are threatened by a third party that is interested in the organization’s sensitive financial data because they know that researchers, at times, enjoy the access. This scenario poses a threat to system security. An organization has the responsibility of protecting customers’ financial information for privacy purposes, where the system failure makes customers suffer the consequences.