Vandals defaced the home page of the library s Thomas legislative search. The library upgraded firewalls and other security items, but upgrades had been planned prior to the break-in. Authorities located the suspect within an hour and charged him with felony computer trespass. The attacker said dissatisfaction with his car insurance coverage made him do it. A database programmer for an online stock trading system carried out a denial of service attack on his employer.
Motives also can include robbery and blackmail.
Crackers broke into several servers on Visa s global network and stole information. Their e-mail demanded money in exchange for the data. Maneuvering on the Internet highway requires the same degree of self-control as does driving on an Interstate highway. A computer hacker is comparable to a driver who weaves back and forth across all the lanes, blocking traffic from proceeding. Immature people seem to get a heady feeling of power from preventing normal activity whether it is driving down the road or accessing popular Web sites.