How come so many major sites seem to be getting hacked nowadays?

I swear I've seen a lot more big company and service websites getting compromised by hackers in recent months than before. At least three multi billion dollar gaming companies have been hacked in the last year or so for instance, and I'm pretty sure a few official forum script sites were attacked as well.

So why is this getting more common? And why not punish these idiots more harshly or something?

 

A couple of reasons.

1) They refuse to upgrade because of customizations. The reason a lot of users use vB 3.x or vB4.1x.
2) They use modifications, plugins, or add-ons with security flaws. vBSEO, anyone?

Nothing is "bulletproof" but SQL injection scripts rarely break core script elements.

 

I don't know, a lot of these that are getting hacked aren't using off the shelf software to begin with, but are huge companies with custom built systems and what not. Yet they still seem to be getting hacked more than they used to.

 

Well, the number one reason software gets hacked is weak administrator passwords. That never changes.