Security researchers are warning that politically motivated hacking seems to be on the rise and becoming more dangerous, reports vnunet.com.

Paul Ferguson, advanced threats researcher at Trend Micro, says in a company blog:

While most of the cyber-crime activities conducted on the Internet are being driven by financial incentives, there also appears to be type of malicious activity being driven by other motivations altogether.

He cited as examples attacks against Estonia last year and more recently against Radio Free Europe. In a similar warning last week, McAfee noted attacks on CNN by Chinese nationalists.

Meanwhile, at least two other instances of "hacktivism" have surfaced:

• Hackers apparently rigged results of an opinion poll on the Web site of the French magazine Capital about whether the country should boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The hackers later attempted to alter the magazine's content, reports Reuters.
• The Bank of Israel Web site was defaced by anti-Israel hackers and later taken down by the Israeli government, which owns the domain, reports The Register. The hackers are believed to be part of a group called MaXi32.