"You've angered the hive"
It's kind of gross the admiration people are expressing here. I work for a security firm that does work with all kinds of organizations. At the heart of the matter, we are scientists investigating the truth. If a break-in occurred, who was responsible, and what was compromised? If someone is being charged with distribution of child pornography, did they willfully download and distribute it, or was it part of a wide net that was cast to download a whole bunch of porn at once? This DDoS occurred: who was responsible? You have security in place: is it sufficient to protect the data in an appropriate manner?We are a small firm. Our yearly revenue is probably nearly $1-1.5 million. Including the founder, we have eight people employed: a mother of two, three people who have poured over ten years of their lives into building the company to its current level, a cancer survivor still undergoing treatment, and three others who are doing good work while making ends meet and paying down school loans.Something like this happening to our company, an event that led to $1MM+ in losses, would wipe us out. It would end a company that provides a valuable service to dozens of law firms and other organizations (colleges, hospitals, local political entities, etc.) each year. It would immediately put eight people out of work and negate 50+ man-years of effort.Call me crazy, but I am not patting these guys on the back. It's all fun and games until you're ruining lives.