The problem is that hackers are feared. They know a lot about things that most people have no clue about, and people are afraid of what they do not understand. People simply do not realize that most hacks are more or less harmless. There is too much of a climate of fear around it for most citizens to think clearly about it. On top off all that the media completely blows everything out of proportion every time something big happens.

What did MafiaBoy do? He was a script kiddie with a simple DDoS tool. Most people I know think he actually hacked into all these systems and by some wit of magic took them all down. Yet to the ignorant he is revered as an antigod of commputer hacking.

If people had been targeting groups like the KKK and kiddie porn sites, imagine how different the stereotype would be...