At first there was innocence, ignorance of the needs of security in networks during the days of the open networks, where network downtime and intrusions were borne more by discovery and accidents. Then there came playfulness, where security was beginning and attackers made more curious, playful attacks, toying with users or just crashing systems to see the effect.
Then came adulthood, maturity. Now, attackers are not necessarily interested in downtime or playing around. They have an agenda and they have profitable goals. Suddenly, we have maliciousness…