[antiRepublicrat]

I think group #2 (script kiddies) and #3 (hackers) actually are a lot alike, at least in intent.

Not really. What you described in school was hackers, people doing it for the challenge, the test of their skills (as well as being l33t in the eyes of their peers). Kiddies are just modern day vandals working with malice.

[Paridel]

Kiddies may just be modern day vandals, but I would argue that at the core their actions are a way to get attention, or at least to feel like they are making some impact on the world.

That impact is negative, and quite often against people they don't know, but impact is still the goal. The only difference with "hackers" would be that the impact is the admiration of people they know.

Anyway, the line is blurred. What about individuals who are very technically astute but write fairly destructive viruses like Code Red?

I'm impressed by those who are technically astute, but not when that knowledge is used to effect systems you shouldn't be messing with. Especially when every system is vulnerable to an extent, people putting the systems up know that, and have to weight the effort spent protecting their system against the cost of someone breaking it. All you are doing by messing with them is proving that they bet wrong.

-paridel