But even as bills are introduced that call for more severe penalties for those who break into computer systems, causing monetary damage and potentially putting people at risk, high-profile teen hacker cases persist.

While analysts cannot pinpoint exactly how teens find their way into heavily guarded government and enterprise computer systems, they pointed to several factors that often aid teen vandals more than adult perpetrators. These factors include easy-to-use scripting toolkits, readily available information and abundant time to learn new skills.

"What you're finding today is that young adults are able to look at Web sites, pick up very sophisticated tools and have the ability to run them," Symantec Security Response senior director Vincent Weafer told NewsFactor.

Incidents on the Rise

More than 26,000 computer intrusion incidents were reported in the first three months of this year to the Coordination Center of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That number surpasses the total for all of 2000.

According to the National Infrastructure Protection Center and security analysts, prefabricated scripting programs that can create viruses and other harmful code without requiring much computer knowledge have enticed teens to give cybercrime a test drive.

"Mafiaboy" used such scripts to bring down targeted sites, and analysts believe hackers created the Anna Kournikova virus with a scripting toolkit.

"Because there are so many automated, easily executable scripts available to these delinquents, the challenge and excitement are greater today for that sort of malicious activity than in the past," Steve Hunt, vice president of security research at Giga Information Group, told NewsFactor in an earlier interview.

Hacking Information Abounds

Weafer told NewsFactor that more than 30,000 security-oriented Web sites exist, from underground forums to security reporting centers. As a result, he said, there is an information explosion on system vulnerabilities.

However, Weafer noted that what teens do with available information and tools is not unlike typical teen vandalism in the outside world.

"It's the equivalent of cyber graffiti," he explained. "They're playing with the tools, knocking on doors, defacing Web sites. They're not necessarily the people doing the serious attempts at hacking the way cybercriminals or cyberterrorists would."

Lack of Ethics

The problem, Weafer explained, is a lack of understanding on the part of teen hackers about the ethical implications of their actions. At the underground level, he noted, discussion of vulnerabilities focuses purely on how to exploit them, not on how to resolve them.

"They don't realize what [they] are doing on a computer has the same impact and ethical value as walking down the street and breaking a window or defacing a building," said Weafer. "They haven't associated those two things together."

Ryan Russell, senior threat analyst at SecurityFocus, agreed and noted that some adult hackers still have not made that mental leap.

"I think a lot of it could be the depersonalization of doing something over a computer," Russell said. "I know people who are past their teens that have the same problem."

Time on Their Side

Russell says that besides getting access to tools that help them learn devious scripting techniques, teens have another factor that works in their favor: time.

Because teens generally have fewer responsibilities than adults, they can spend more hours in front of a computer.

"It's hard for someone like myself, who, as a professional, [has] other things going on. I don't have time to sit there all weekend and learn the particular nuances of a program," said Russell.

"That's a real resource for someone trying to learn the low-level details of technology," he added.

No Fear of Failure

While Russell said he does not believe increased punishments for hackers would work as a deterrent -- instead, they sometimes increase the thrill of the chase -- he has learned from experience that most hackers believe they will not get caught.

What does get a hacker's attention is what Russell described as an "event."

"Unfortunately, that event tends to be [when] they get a visit from law enforcement," he said. "In many cases, you hear about FBI agents who pay someone a visit to let them know they have started a file on that person and to let them know to cool it."

"I think that's where, for a lot of people, it hits home," Russell said.

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