Social engineering is using deception, manipulation and influence to convince a human who has access to a computer system to do something, like click on an attachment in an e-mail.

It doesn't work the same way everywhere. The Americans are the most gullible, because they don't like to deny co-workers' requests. People in the former Soviet bloc countries are less trusting, perhaps because of their previous experiences with their countries' secret services.

I can go into LinkedIn and search for network engineers and come up with a list of great spear-phishing targets because they usually have administrator rights over the network. Then I go onto Twitter or Facebook and trick them into doing something, and I have privileged access.

I saw myself as an electronic joy rider.

The intent of the individuals who created the DDoS attacks has nothing to do with hacking, and they are vandals, not hackers.

So the ethic I was taught in school resulted in the path I chose in my life following school.

My argument is not that I shouldn't have been punished, but that the punishment didn't fit the crime.