Is it really hackers though? My impression has been that many of the biggest / most notorious failures of major players in bitcoin have been due to the operators of a "business" either running a scam from the beginning, running an honest business for a while but then deciding to run with the money, or just being plain incompetent and failing. Karpeles ended up with how many millions after Gox was "hacked"? Pretty easy to "hack" something if you're the one running it. In other words.. it's not the hackers, but the businesses themselves, that are the problem.

I'm as much a fan of small government and individual freedom as the next person who tried out bitcoin, but the reality seems to clearly indicate that regulation and oversight is needed.