You don't have to be an expert to use them. It is difficult to determine what the motives are. Some people are joy riders - they like to break and enter systems. Even breaking into a university will break in overseas first to cover the trail. Others like breaking into well-known systems like financial institutions.
Incidents tend to be international in nature.
The FBI estimates that 80 per cent of attacks are made by disgruntled employees, with 20 per cent coming from outside the organisation. However, Mr Collie said this was shifting towards 50 per cent as companies failed to take adequate security measures. Early law enforcement contact and protocols in handling evidence will ensure it is admissible in court. If it is left until the last minute or files have been bandied around in e-mail, it jeopardises prosecutions. Mr Mowgli Assor, a computer security specialist with Ohio State University, said there had been an increase in both hacking incidents and the tools available to attack computer networks.