It’s now well known that Russian hackers have targeted voter registration databases in more than 20 U.S. states, and there is evidence that the Russian government had a long list of targets that went far beyond American politicians running for office—targeting thousands of people, from defense contractors at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, to Ukrainian lawmakers, to the Pope and his executive team.

Russia is home to some of the world’s most gifted and prolific hackers. Elite hackers in China spent 2018 carrying out some of the biggest and most damaging breaches in history, including attacks on U.S. Navy contractors and Marriott. They haven’t just been hunting down individual people or companies—they’re targeting managed service providers that provide IT infrastructure. And they aren’t necessarily covering their tracks as they did in the past.

Beyond the state-sponsored cyber initiatives, there are plenty of talented people who are motivated both by a lack of economic opportunity and ineffective law enforcement. It’s created a perfect storm: Enormous talent, weak laws and economic stresses have brought about a growing pool of successful hackers.