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 Year's Day 1994

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Bruce Sterling
bruces@well.sf.ca.us

Literary Freeware: Not for Commercial Use

THE HACKER CRACKDOWN: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier