http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2626931,00.html

By Bob Sullivan, MSNBC
September 12, 2000 5:46 AM PT

Top-secret designs are leaked out of a French military contractor
through its Web site; a content company's entire database of
proprietary images is posted in Internet newsgroups; a U.S. automaker
is offered a peek at the new designs from a German competitor for $8
million. In a world paranoid about computer security, most experts
quietly confess that hacking of high-profile Web sites is harmless --
it's high-priced corporate espionage hacking that's the real
cybercrime problem.

Hackers who deface sites like FBI.gov or steal credit cards from sites
like WesternUnion.com attract great attention. But some experts say
such break-ins and "toilet-clogging techniques" are merely a
distraction from the real problem of cybercrime -- corporate-sponsored
proprietary information theft committed by professionals who rarely
get caught.

[fbi.gov was never defaced. It was victim to DoS attacks.]

"If a 15-year-old can break in, what do you think a professionally
trained intruder can do?" said Tom Talleur, former NASA computer
security chief, now a consultant at KPMG.

[snip...]