Gone are the days when society thinks of hackers as the greasy-haired geeks in pajamas who spend their entire life in front of the screen playing around with viruses and infecting networks for fun. Hacking has come a long way from this phase and face.

This transformation gives us now the image of hackers—not as an untidy mob or an illegal and unprincipled community, but a hamlet of modern-day thinkers who are able to express their views of issues in articulate and well thought-out ways. Many consider them as watchdogs more than outlaws. Some still look at these folks negatively.

Hacking comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. But today’s standouts would just include the pure-blooded bad guys, the Robinhoods and the hacktivists. I have put together some of the recent events that map out the path that hackers are treading.

The Bad Guys

When motivated by vested personal interests, steal or grab sensitive intel, hacking becomes a really nasty act. They are regarded as demolitions experts who know how systems work and fail. Several hot large-scale and international security breaches were linked to China lately.

I can barely wrap my head around the idea of China going after online websites and pinning them down one by one, to address territorial issues. Could this be their way of saying “we are powerful, hence, you should surrender to our wants”? Sounds unjust, right? Japan could not agree more. They have recently suffered full-blown cyberattack from China, hitting 19 Japanese governmental, banking and power utility websites. Some 8 websites including the Supreme Court was vandalized with Chinese national flag. Similar infiltrations were observed in the Philippines and Taiwan. Both countries have outstanding political and territorial concerns with China, whose breaching activities span across the globe. They were also tied to the recent spear phishing cyberattack of the White House Military Office. This is why it is not surprising to know that a latest security research shows Asia’s powerhouse nation is the number one source of malicious IPs. Looks like modern warfare is being agitated by China versus the world and they have the goods to back them up.

While the Chinese continues to venture in global espionage and cyber bullying, some companies look at hacking as a way to gain monetary profits and commercial advantage. A report noted the revival of ransonware, a PC malware that encrypts user’s data or the entire computer system making it inoperative. By using anonymous payment methods, the malware demands money from the user to restore the computer back to normal.

The Hacktivists

A portmanteau of hack and activists, hacktivists break into network security systems of companies and government agencies to promote political and social ideals. The activities span many issues and views. SiliconANGLE.com has featured the notorious legions of Anonymous quite a number of times. In July, the group launched WikiLeaks-like site called Par:AnoIA or The Potentially Alarming Research: Anonymous Intelligence Agency, to curate content to the public.

Beaming their association with Anonymous, GhostShell leaks 1 million accounts from banks, governments and consultancy firms last August. They proudly claimed responsibility of leaking CIA and Wall Street info. Dusts have not settled yet and GhostShell launched another attack, this time targeting the academe. Armed with their “Project WestWind” campaign on expensive tuition fees, political agendas, tough teaching regulations and job insecurity for graduates, the group released some 120,000 data of students and faculty members. A week ago, another Anonymous affiliate, Antisec posted Symantec source codes in Pirate Bay to denounce weak security programs created by the company.

Anonymous Spokesperson Barrett Brown was captured by the FBI and parts of the actual scene were caught on camera and audio recording. The authorities have been very active in hunting down members of the group since it was formed in 2003.

The Robinhoods

Robinhood steals from the wealthy then gives whatever he has filched to the poor. In modern-day hacking, this folklore hero also exists. What I would consider as hacking village’s Robinhood is Aaron Swartz, who is facing possible 35 years imprisonment with $1 million fine for 13 data theft cases. The Reddit co-founder faced the courts of law in July of 2011 with fraud charges and stealing of over four million documents from MIT and JSTOR.

Swartz is not your ordinary hacker, his roots are firmly planted and recognized in the entire IT space. He was one of the men behind the startup incubator Y Combinator that led to the formation of the popular social networking site, Reddit. Regarded as the young internet hero, he now serves as the executive director of Demand Progress, an online organization campaigning for civil rights and reforms in the government. He pursued a 10-month fellowship program at Harvard. As a teenager, he helped in the creation of RSS.

And, why to me he is Robinhood more than a criminal? Simple. He did not get a single dime for any of the millions of documents he released publicly. These academic journals were only made available for few privileged students who can afford to go to a prestigious university such as MIT. It could have possibly harmed the MIT education system, but benefited the masses outside the “privileged” circle.

Years before this incident, he collaborated with PublicResource.org’s Carl Malamud to download 20% of the database of court documents to share with the public. Their goal here is to update the outdated PACER system, where many legal papers and federal court cases are missing. Again, no reports have mentioned that he earned money from this activity. All for a good cause, it is just that the means are not aligned to what the law dictates—the law that defines good from the bad.

But when do you say that hacking or piracy is good? I hail from a country where completing three basic meals a day is somewhat a luxury. Not that we are on a state of famine, but the average family here tries to make both ends meet every single day. Now with this situation, how can the people afford to get hold of original OS if buying a computer or a laptop would be equivalent to months of salary? Piracy allows those who are in the low income family to gain access to fundamental computer programs like Microsoft OS, that may equip them to keep up with the fast-paced technology episodes, and be competitive globally. This mirrors, arguably, the principles behind the leaked academic journals from MIT by Swartz. Going back to my earlier question: is it good? I’d still say no. But, it is beneficial. Then again, I am not a big fan of Machiavelli’s principle of “the end justifies the means.” Moreover, when we thank hackers or pirates, it’s similar to welcoming the burglars into our house, offering them cupcakes and spaghetti before they take away all our belongings. Hacking is only good when used internally to identify network security flaws and counterattack intruders that could harm their servers and system.

Hacking, like earthquakes, happen with minimal to zero prologues. It occurs anywhere, anytime. While there are the good and the bad sides of it, there is one important premise that it delivers to the world: security vulnerabilities will always be there and security monitoring across industries should be strengthened. But, it’s also good to twist our perspective of hackers. Maybe instead of kicking them in the teeth and throwing them into jail, which will by the way anger other hackers as if they belong to a fraternity of sorts, the industry can try what Mark Zuckerberg did when he hired Sony PlayStation hacker, GeoHot. Exploit skills for the betterment.

Even villains in movies can turn into the good guy at the end, with the right opportunities. Hello, Megamind.