Indeed, within days of the recent denial-of-service hacks, authorities quickly focused their search on an Internet Relay Chat braggart with the moniker "mafia-boy" and on "Coolio, " the alias of the person who allegedly hijacked the domain of RSA Security and redirected it to a defaced site.

CNN: Net crime does pay for cops

"This is first case where I've heard of someone leaking stuff to Anonymous to have a site defaced, instead of defacing it himself, " said Clifford Neuman, director of University of Southern California Center for Computer Systems Security.

WSJ: Reuters journalist charged with hacking conspiracy

Lulzsec claimed to have attacked News International, whose website for The Sun was defaced with a false story suggesting the newspaper's owner Rupert Murdoch had died.

BBC: 'Lulzsec hacker' latest to be arrested in US

For cash, Greeks at first use existing euro banknotes defaced with ink or a stamp.

ECONOMIST: Why Europe��s leaders should think the unthinkable

In a grating public embarrassment, the statue outside the institute was defaced in April: Someone spray-painted the word "thief" on the figure of Scrushy.

FORBES: Collateral Damage

Most of its target sites seem to have remained online, and several downed and defaced sites seemed like random low-hanging fruit: A manufacturing an export company and a real estate law firm, for instance.

FORBES: Anonymous Hackers Hit Israeli Sites In Retaliation For Gaza Attacks

In December, for instance, the head of Iran's central bank issued a stern warning that from January 8th it would no longer accept bank notes defaced by extra words.

ECONOMIST: Iran's increasing turmoil