Good article... I disagree with some of it, but as a whole it is fairly perceptive. I didn't really like the car analogy with kids who take a joyride being compared to someone who hacks a network. Rather, I would compare the kid who hacks the network with a kid who would steal a car to dissassemble it in order to get a better feel for how it works, except that the kid who did that would damage the vehicle while the hacker wouldn't. The cracker who breaks into a system with the intent of causing harm or doing electronic theft I have no empathy for... but a hacker who goes into a computer system (IE: a CANDU development team's system) to access information that is otherwise forbidden to them... that is to me more of what a hacker would do. I don't see how simply reading technical information on a nuclear reactor would be harmful to it's designers... but under the current laws of the US, if I break into the development team's system with the intent to steal the schematics of the reactor and sell them to someone for profit, my sentance is much less than if I did it in the pursuit of knowledge. An ethical hacker is not a stalker - they are not trying to invade your privacy (although they might if it helps them get real information), they are not a theif - because they will not steal - or copy - anything they could actually purchase (a good hack is a lot more work than simply buying your product), and they are not going to destroy your buisiness by sharing your project information with everyone. An ethical hacker is actually something positive for you... they will often show you how you got in because they know that a black-hat could follow the same path and do real damage. Normally an ethical hacker is just an exceptionally curious individual who is wondering what is so important to keep secret from the rest of the world. Personally, I think that laws should be changed so that ethical hacking carries less penalty than dark side hacking, rather than the other way around. I find it terribly wrong that the penalty for hacking doubles because the motivation of the hacker was NOT principally for personal monetary gain.