"When the system fails you, you create your own system."

Which relates to what you're saying. When clever, intelligent people are ostracized and marginalized, they then use those skills to get illegally what society has prevented them from getting legally.

At some point, the idea of getting caught doesn't even register anymore.

If we just paid engineers more would this type of crime disappear?

Or is greed, ego, arrogance also a part of their actions?

We probably will never know. A lot of hackers turn to hacking because of various reasons - some ideological, others because they felt they didn't fit in anywhere else.

>> If we just paid engineers more would this type of crime disappear?

Probably not. You cannot get rid of one type of crime by simply paying people NOT to do it. It is what is - at no time in human history has any civilization had zero crime. That's regardless of punishments and financial incentives.

>> Or is greed, ego, arrogance also a part of their actions?

I think its different things at different times. When I was hacking, it was arrogance, thinking I was smarter than others and trying to prove it. That leads to thinking you are beyond law enforcement when you get away with it (ego). If you're into it solely for financial gain, then the other two feed your greed. Get one nice payout for your ransomware and now you think its easy to do and you'll never be caught - increasing your greed to get more.

They all kind of play into each other:

arrogance: "I'll never get caught."

ego: "They'll never catch me, my ops sec is too good for law enforcement."

greed: "This was too easy, next time I'll target a bigger company for a bigger payout."

Ehh, maybe. Or maybe they’re just bored sociopaths who get thrills looking for a big score.