It makes me sad to see seemingly talented and well intentioned individuals and go down such a destructive path.
ZING! haha
Seriously, these 'hackers' could be contributing to the greater good of our civilization by writing tools and methodologies to make network security not so asymmetric in favor of attackers. It's really a shame that they don't see they are hurting real people and doing real damage.
However, I'm not feeling too bad about it. I'm disgusted at the US government bankrupting itself partly by enriching its revolving-door cronies in the security industrial complex [1][2], who in turn give us security theater in order to justify the government bankrupting itself partly by enriching its cronies... ad infinitum.
And the casualties are our rights and civil liberties and ultimately a potential currency-centered financial crisis that could make 2007/2008 look like spilled milk. What's going on is not sustainable in any way, shape, or form, and cannot end well. If Anonymous, Wikileaks, or anyone else helps shine light on this insanity before its too late, even if they have to be a little naughty but not truly evil to do so, then more power to them.
It's all about signaling unless you are seriously genuinely interested in improving humanity's lot, not just feeling good for doing something good. (One way to test that is to do anonymously random act of kindness without being recongnized by the public or anyone)
But yeah, this backlash is pretty childish on both ends.