If you have a vulnerable computer attached to the BIG BAD INTERNET, sooner or later your box will be compromised. Notice I prefer the term compromised to hacked. Hacking is a benign activity. You hack out of curiosity and [hopefully] with prior permission. Can this be done? Can I get into this box? How is he trying to keep me out? What stone has he left unturned? Woops: He has a bulletproof firewall but he left this one vulnerable cgi script in his httpd directory: HA! I'M IN! At that point the correct thing to do is to stop and notify the hackee. But once a hacker gets in, (especially if he is there without permission) the temptation to quietly mess around and cover his guilty tracks is usually overwhelming. Then it has gone from hacking to compromising someone else's box.