IntroductionLife is made up of zeros and ones. For some, this may not be intuitive. For some, this may go against their religious or moral values. To a hacker, however, zeros and ones represent your identity, your medical records, your financial situation, and the human condition: life. Even the human genome can be sequenced into nothing more than zeros and ones. Life is binary. For those who speak it, binary is the language that controls our very existence. With so much power at stake, it's no surprise that some seek it out. Humanity has always been fascinated by power. But given the scale of the issues, it goes without saying that society must protect itself. To do this, we need to better understand these enigmatic people. To understand these dark people and what motivates them, we must appreciate them as a whole. Unfortunately, scientists often attempt to break problems down into smaller factors in order to better understand the larger problem through research into smaller components. One such study, by Peter Leeson, an economics professor at George Mason University, posits that hackers can be grouped into three classes: (1) good hackers, (2) fame-motivated hackers and (3) greedy, motivation-based hackers (Coyne, Leeson 3). While this approach of separating components may be appropriate for understanding many complex problems, it can be detrimental to understanding the multifaceted aspects of a hacker. To understand hackers, what motivates them, and how to stop them, we must understand that they exist on a continuum through a life cycle in which they move from one class to another. A hackerKevin Mitnick, one of our country's most notorious hackers, is the quintessential example of ho...... middle of paper ......n Systems 29.2 (2012): 77-108. Computer science and applied sciences completed. Internet. April 13, 2014. Kelley, Brian M., John J. Graybeal, and James J. Mahoney. Substance abuse across the lifespan: a biopsychosocial approach. 4th ed. Redding: BVT, nd 2013. Print. Mitnick, Kevin. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2011. Print. Sharma, Raghav. Delving into the mind of a hacker: can criminological theories explain hacking? SSRN Working Paper Series. Rochester: Social Science Research Network, March 2008. Thomas, Douglas. Hacker culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. 5-46. Print.Wible, Brent. “A Site Where Hackers Are Welcome: Using Hacking Contests to Shape Preferences and Deter Computer Crime.” The Yale Law Journal 112.6 (2003): 1577-623. JSTOR. Internet. April 13. 2014. .