Right now, the internet probably seems like the Wild West.  Hackers are roaming around, seemingly attacking websites on a whim.  Most recently, groups like Anonymous, the Jester, and Lulz Security (LulzSec – now supposedly disbanded) have been attacking and successfully taking down web sites of all types.  Government and corporate, public and private, anybody seems as though they can be a target for these attacks.  While their reasons for attacking a site range from political statement to simply for the fun of it, hacktivists and black hat trouble makers alike, the end result is that hacking is now a real cause of downtime.