While financial gain is usually the primary motivation driving large cybercrime groups, some may also have political or ideological motives beyond just monetary profits. However, most large, sustained cybercrime operations still require substantial funding to cover operational costs. So even for groups with additional non-financial goals, the financial aspect of their activities remains very important [...]
More sophisticated, well-funded cybercrime groups do dedicate some resources towards research and development activities. This could include developing new exploits, evasion techniques, malware variants and updating toolkits based on emerging threats and weaknesses that get detected.
Some groups are able to become bigger due to their success and profits. Groups that are particularly successful at compromising systems, stealing data or funds are likely to reinvest those profits into expanding their operations. This enables them to take on more projects and recruit/pay more members. Large groups may also be able to dedicate [...]
