"The term hacker doesn't even mean anything any more," said Michael Rasmussen, research director for information security at Giga Information Group, in an interview with NewsFactor. Still, security experts like Rasmussen try to profile hackers and divide them into broad categories.

Casual and Political Hackers

Casual hackers are by far the most numerous, according to Richard Stiennon, Gartner research director for network security. While most of these intruders are "exploratory hackers" motivated by curiosity or by the challenge of outwitting security systems, some hope to cause mischief, steal money or use subscriptions that other computer users have paid for.

Politics motivates other hackers, although, according to Stiennon, many hackers who identify themselves as political "use their infantile perspective on world politics as justification, while their real motivation is demonstrating that they can take over a Web site." Genuine hacker-activists are relatively rare. Some of them infiltrate Web sites of competing political organizations, while others help dissidents living under totalitarian regimes exchange information more freely.

The political category also may include cyber terrorists -- hackers who attempt to cause massive damage for political reasons -- but even though the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center issued a cyber terrorism alert last month, evidence of such attacks is not widely accepted. Still, some critical infrastructure is vulnerable to damage by hackers, Stiennon told NewsFactor.

Political attacks may be directed against private organizations as well as governments, as was the case in the recent denial-of-service attacks and Web site vandalism against the Recording Industry Association of America in retaliation for its support of antipiracy legislation. In fact, any highly visible organization may find itself a target, according to Giga analyst Rasmussen.

Inside Agents

Insiders, though outnumbered by casual hackers, pose more serious threats to corporations. Company employees and trusted third parties, such as consultants or suppliers, can cause enormous damage to corporate systems. "With complex business partner relationships, this can be a mess to deal with," Rasmussen said.

Insider attacks may be motivated by curiosity -- for example, employees may try to find out how much their colleagues are earning -- but insiders also can steal credit card numbers and trade secrets.

Vandalism is far less common than theft among insiders, according to Gartner analyst Stiennon, although one insider vandalism case -- in which an Australian bent on revenge against his former employer hacked into a computer system and caused it to pump raw sewage into public waterways -- was widely reported in news media last year. (continued...)

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