"In the early days, it was all about ego. At that time, hackers just wanted to prove they were smart," said Stuart McClure, head of McAfee's Avert Labs. "Today, hacking is absolutely predominantly financial. Everything is driven by financial gain."

A note on terminology: Although the word "hacker" is bandied about in press reports, white papers, and security alerts, there are actually two different types of people who break into computer systems.

Sometimes referred to as "white hats," some hackers are not fiddling around with authentication and encryption to steal anything or even deface a Web site. Rather, the white hats are legitimately concerned about the security of either a single system or the Internet itself. Much like a doctor who pokes around to see what hurts, these hackers break in because they care.

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