Hacker Crackdown

THE HACKER CRACKDOWN

Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier

by Bruce Sterling

CONTENTS

Preface to the Electronic Release of *The Hacker

Crackdown*

Chronology of the Hacker Crackdown

Introduction

Part 1: CRASHING THE SYSTEM

A Brief History of Telephony / Bell's Golden Vaporware /

Universal Service / Wild Boys and Wire Women / The

Electronic Communities / The Ungentle Giant / The

Breakup / In Defense of the System / The Crash Post-

Mortem / Landslides in Cyberspace

Part 2: THE DIGITAL UNDERGROUND

Steal This Phone / Phreaking and Hacking / The View

>From Under the Floorboards / Boards: Core of the

Underground / Phile Phun / The Rake's Progress /

Strongholds of the Elite / Sting Boards / Hot Potatoes /

War on the Legion / Terminus / Phile 9-1-1 / War Games

/ Real Cyberpunk

Part 3: LAW AND ORDER

Crooked Boards / The World's Biggest Hacker Bust /

Teach Them a Lesson / The U.S. Secret Service / The

Secret Service Battles the Boodlers / A Walk Downtown /

FCIC: The Cutting-Edge Mess / Cyberspace Rangers /

FLETC: Training the Hacker-Trackers

Part 4: THE CIVIL LIBERTARIANS

NuPrometheus + FBI = Grateful Dead / Whole Earth +

Computer Revolution = WELL / Phiber Runs

Underground and Acid Spikes the Well / The Trial of

Knight Lightning / Shadowhawk Plummets to Earth /

Kyrie in the Confessional / $79,499 / A Scholar

Investigates / Computers, Freedom, and Privacy

Electronic Afterword to *The Hacker Crackdown,*

New Years' Day 1994

Preface to the Electronic Release of *The Hacker

Crackdown*

January 1, 1994 -- Austin, Texas

Hi, I'm Bruce Sterling, the author of this

electronic book.

Out in the traditional world of print, *The

Hacker Crackdown* is ISBN 0-553-08058-X, and is

formally catalogued by the Library of Congress as "1.

Computer crimes -- United States. 2. Telephone --

United States -- Corrupt practices. 3. Programming

(Electronic computers) -- United States -- Corrupt

practices." 'Corrupt practices,' I always get a kick out

of that description. Librarians are very ingenious

people.

The paperback is ISBN 0-553-56370-X. If you go

and buy a print version of *The Hacker Crackdown,*

an action I encourage heartily, you may notice that

in the front of the book, beneath the copyright

notice -- "Copyright (C) 1992 by Bruce Sterling" -- it

has this little block of printed legal boilerplate from

the publisher. It says, and I quote:

"No part

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