On Monday, millions of websites that point to GoDaddy DNS servers went down. The Twitter account @AnonymousOwn3r claimed credit for the attack, having previously claimed successful attacks on Facebook and FBI/DOJ related sites.

I wondered what are the motivations for someone to hack others and came up with this list:

1. Profit - Steal financial information or your identity that can be used in financial crimes.
2. Challenge - They try to see how much they can accomplish/get away with.
3. Use your Computer - Harness the computing power, hide behind your computer's identity or use it to store illegal material like child porn or pirated material.
4. Attention - High profile attacks bring lots of quick attention, giving a quick sense of power and celebrity.
5. Spying - Having insight into what friends, family, co-workers or companies are saying.
6. Revenge - Feeling persecuted or slighted can lead one to target sites or individuals to be hacked.
7. Disobedience - Subversive hacking can reveal secrets or undermine perceived unjust corporate or state entities.
8. Productive Hacks - Hacking for the express purpose of demonstrating and reporting vulnerabilities will help fix holes for the future and prevent more malicious hacking.

It is often a combination of these factors that leads one to hack. Watching @AnonymousOwn3r feed, it was apparent that they were enjoying the power and attention that came from the attack. Their ego was stroked by having accomplished this challenge. They responded to most tweets and retweeted any mentions. They delayed in giving a concrete duration or specific motivation for the hack attack. Later they would show that even a large internet company like GoDaddy has many SQL injection vulnerabilities that using hacked servers as bots abused. The hack attack affected roughly 72 million websites, although company officials delayed in giving an explanation and tried to blame "corrupted router data tables."

I've only ever known a couple people who got involved in hacking. Both were disaffected teens who felt alienated by society. One was a neighbor who hacked into her local high school website and exacted retribution on an ex boyfriend on Facebook and elsewhere. She went on to turn the skills to more productive uses and eventually was hired to help the high school build a better site.

The other inadvertent hacker sadly committed suicide. I met him in the poker world. He discovered a glitch/hack on Ultimate Bet that allowed him to consistently make money in heads up matches. Despite my advice to report the issue or refuse to exploit it, the lure of seemingly free money was too great for him. He abused it and eventually was caught.

Both were bright and likable enough young people. They unfortunately channeled their talents to undermining the established online environment. While their motivations may vary, in a digital world hackers will continue to pop up to express a dissatisfaction with the status quo.