attacks from online thugs such as Anonymous and LulzSec appear to signal a hacker Armageddon.Not only has Sony been relentlessly targeted by hackers this year so has the Central Intelligence Agency, Sega, PBS.com, the U.K. government, and dozens of other high-profile company and government agency Web sites.
But security experts say despite the uptick in reported computer attacks, network break-ins, and data breaches the volume of hack attacks is not rising. What has changed is that hacker groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec have gotten media savvy creating an illusion of an escalating cyberwar that in reality does not exist, says Graham Cluley senior technology consultant at the security firm Sophos.
Anonymous and Lulz Security - two of the highest profile groups at work today - sail under this flag.
"There has always been a streak within hackerdom of ideology mixed with technology,"
says Peter Sommer, author of the seminal 1980s text The Hacker's Handbook.
The hacker, explains Mr Sommer, is distinct from the cyber-criminal, whose motivations are generally larceny and whose relationship with technology is akin to the housebreaker's relationship to the jemmy - it is a tool of the trade.
Hackers are interested in the mechanism of attack as much as they are in the target.
"One strong element in hacking is seeing how things work. Here is a technology, can I make it do something else?"
says Mr Sommer.
That love of technological innovation, and the internet in particular, gives rise to a philosophy.
