While far from endorsing hacktivists, F-Secure chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, says that at least in the instance of the attacks on Sony's PlayStation Network, things aren't black and white.s"

"Sony is an easy company to hate," he says. "Sony goes to extreme lengths to try to protect their own intellectual property, but they don't seem to care much of the protection of their customers' information."

Hypponen says Sony has long history of "going after legitimate innovation and hobbyists" and cites examples such as Sony BMG shipping hidden Windows rootkits on music CDs, Sony shipping a rootkit on its Microvault USB sticks, the killing of Linux support on the PlayStation 3, and threatening hobbyists for creating software that enables Sony's Aibo robot dog to dance.

Rather than fist waving, Hypponen says organisations, industry and government need to take a different approach to their relations with hackers.

"Don't make enemies," he says. "Don't belittle hackers. Understand that people want to tinker with your products. Don't go after pirates too aggressively. Be tolerant."