I just read an interesting article by Peter Pachal in Mashable's tech section, in which Mike Calce, the former hacker known as "mafiaboy," says most of today's hackers are motivated by the desire to make a quick buck. Calce makes some decent points, but I think he's unfairly swiping the entire hacking community with the same, big brush. From Pachal's article: “The hacker motivation has changed immensely,” Calce told Mashable in an interview. “It’s much more about monetary gain, whereas in my era, it was about pushing the status quo.” Calce’s era was circa 2000, when he pulled off major denial-of-service attacks on several major tech companies, including Amazon, Dell, Yahoo, eBay and CNN — all when he was 15 years old. Calce was eventually caught and arrested for the attacks, serving eight months in a “group facility,” he says. After doing his time, Calce laid low for years, but now he works as a digital security consultant and keynotes at IT conferences. He wrote a book about his experiences in 2008, 'Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken.'" It's somewhat ironic that he talks about hackers going for monetary gain, since he's made a living as a security consultant and author since his arrest and incarceration. To be fair, though, I don't think he's suggesting it's all bad to go for the money over an idealistic crusade.Link: Salted Hash- IT Security News