Two recent events have thrown the real potential impact of 'hacking' into a different light. The first was the attack on Australian domain name registrar and hosting provider Distribute.IT, who were attacked back in March by hackers who thoroughly trashed servers and destroyed data. Customers suffered an extended outage and much of the lost data proved unrecoverable (we'll leave any arguments about good data back practices for the time being). The attack was so malicious and targeted that an an insider or disgruntled ex-employee involvement is suspected. The attack was so devastating that Distribute.IT was sold for a song, effectively closing the doors for the original business entity. This is one of the few examples I can recall of a company being forced out of business because of a hacking attack - something that certainly didn't occur to TJ Maxx, Sony or RSA - despite any financial loss and reputational damage.

The other event is interesting for because it offers the opposite perspective. Rupert Murdoch has closed the 'News of the World' tabloid newspaper in the UK in the wake of a hacking scandal - but this time the company weren't the victims but the perpetrators of the attacks, hacking into voicemail message systems in order to get the latest scoop to feed the insatiable appetite of Joe Public for more juicy gossip.
Despite the outrage, 'no tech hacking' - such as dumpster diving or social engineering (known as 'blagging') - has long been a staple of tabloid journalists - posing as hospital staff to photograph celebrity operations or even going undercover as a staff member at Buckingham Palace. Somehow the latest antics have crossed a line (from the gutter to the sewer as a former British PM remarked), that has resulted in the closure of the News of the World (the self proclaimed 'world's greatest newspaper') after 168 years.

Two wildly different hacking events, same outcome: out of business...