Operation Sundevil
Operation Sundevil was a
1990 nation-wide
United States Secret Service crackdown on "illegal computer
hacking activities". Along with the
Chicago Task Force and the
Arizona Organized Crime and
Racketeering Bureau, they conducted raids in
Austin,
Cincinnati,
Detroit,
Los Angeles,
Miami,
New York,
Newark,
Phoenix,
Pittsburgh,
Richmond,
Tucson,
San Diego,
San Jose, and
San Francisco.
Much of Operation Sundevil was targeted at
credit card thieves and
telephone abusers. Other parts of the operation involved the
underground ezine Phrack, which had published the contents of a proprietary text file which was copied from
Bell South computers, and contained information about the
E911 emergency response system, although this was later made null in a court case in which it was proven that the same information about the E911 system was also provided to the public through a mail-order catalog. This was also a landmark case involving the criminal status of copying data, while leaving the original data unmodified.
The Cyberpunk Bust
As Operation Sundevil was first appearing in the media, an unrelated raid occurred at the offices of
role-playing game company
Steve Jackson Games. Media and histories often relate the event as part of Operation Sundevil although no direct connection existed at the time. The Steve Jackson Games raid was conducted by a Secret Service unit from Chicago under the direction of Chicago prosecutor Bill Cook, while Operation Sundevil, led by Gail Thackeray, was based in Arizona. The SJG raid led to
Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service.
* Sterling, Bruce (1993).
The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier. Bantam Books. ISBN 055356370X. [
1]
*
On-line and Out-of-Bounds*
EFF "Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service Case Archive"*
Bruce Sterling book about the Bell South documents
