Personal attacks

A personal attack is an attack driven by a grudge or personal grievance. The attacker believes they have been treated unfairly by an organisation or by one person, so they want to cause harm, embarrassment or inconvenience. They are not mainly trying to make money.

The attacker might be a customer, a supplier, or anyone who believes the organisation has treated them badly. Because they already know something about how the organisation works, they can spot a weakness that an outsider would miss. For example, someone who has used a bike shop's website has seen that its password reset form asks only for a date of birth. They could use that weakness to get into another customer's account and change the delivery address, which inconveniences the customer and embarrasses the shop.

Sometimes a personal attack is aimed at one person rather than the whole organisation. A member who was removed from a sports club's team might get into the club secretary's email account, because the password is the name of the secretary's dog and everyone in the club knows it. They could then send unpleasant messages to other members. The aim is to upset or inconvenience that individual because of a personal disagreement.