Unauthorized access to information systems (hacking) continues to plague businesses. Researchers have sought to characterize the motivation and “profile” of various types of hackers in an attempt to better understand their behavior and improve the defensive posture of businesses. Little research, however, has been conducted toward the development of a predictive model to categorize individuals as hackers or potential hackers. Doing so would help target scarce educational and investigative resources. The present study utilizes existing theory in an attempt to empirically develop a discriminant model to categorize an individual’s likelihood of engaging in illegal hacking behavior. The independent variables considered include age, gender, education level, professional status, and personal moral philosophy (Forsyth 1980). The dependent variable is behavior (measured by willingness to hack), mediated by attitude toward hacking. The empirical results reconfirm that demographic variables influence one’s willingness to hack. Personal moral philosophy, as indicated by one’s idealism and relativism, emerged as a significant predictor of one’s attitude toward the ethicality of hacking.

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