Financial motivations
Nation-state sponsored/cyberwarfare
Corporate espionage
Hackivists
Resource theft
Gamer issues
Financial theft and nation-state attacks are easily the largest portion of cybercrime. Decades ago, the lone, solitary youth hacker powered by junk food was an adequate representation of the average hacker. They were interested in showing themselves and others that they could hack something or create interesting malware. Rarely did they do real harm.
Today, most hackers belong to professional groups, which are motivated by taking something of value, and often causing significant harm. The malware they use is designed to be covert as possible and to take as much of something of value as is possible before discovery.
