Hacker Temptation

I was thinking about computer hackers and pondered their capabilities as well as their moral resolve in committing certain acts. I began to wonder if there were any situations in which a hacker might think that what he was doing was unquestionably for the good of socieity. People can justify any action usually by claiming that "the ends justify the means" or something along those lines. Did you ever play the game Scruples? Well I came up with a good question befitting of the board game. I came up with a theortical situation in which I'm not sure any hacker would hesitate in pursuing.

Scruple:
You hack into a corporate server and hijack important information, something like credit card info, customer social security numbers or industry trade secrets that the company's competition would like to get their grubby hands on. You send your ransom note to said corporation asking that they hire a cyber security firm, to be named by you, the hacker. In exchange, you promise not to publicly post the sensitive information that you just "borrowed." You then buy many shares of the cyber-security firm the hacked corporation hopefully agrees to hire.

Justification:
It's a win-win-win. You commit one small illegal activity, no one gets hurt if the corporation agrees to hire the security firm you suggest, which they should be most inclined to do given your recent cyber infiltration.

1) You do them a favor by increasing the security of their systems to prevent the really bad guys from hacking them and doing who-knows-what to the information you happen to have a copy of yourself.

2) You also help out another company increase their clientelle by at least one for simply recommending their services, which the owners, employees and share holders of the cyber security firm should be grateful for what you accomplished. Do not try to collect commission here.

3) You might as well make some money from this generous transaction by investing in the cyber security firm that the hacked corporation is going to hire. Call it a conslutation fee for helping two companies flourish. As with anything in a capitialist society, the better your talents (the more effective your attack is), the better the reward.

Is this a victimless crime?

CDs in my stereos: Toadies' Rubberneck
Last movie I saw at theater: Pirates of the Carribean
Last movie I saw at home: Old School