Despite the protests, Robert Riggs (the Prophet) was sentenced to twenty-one months and his two colleagues--Adam Grant (the Urvile) and Frank Dearden (the Leftist)--received fourteen months each. They also had to make restitutional payments of $233,000 for the value of the "access devices" found in their possession. The access devices were the IDs and passwords that they had collected from BellSouth during their various raids.
There was no question that the Atlanta Three were hackers who had, without doubt, broken into BellSouth. But the valuation of the "access devices"-- computer codes, telephone card numbers--was highly questionable. As the foundation asked, how can a value be assessed when no loss can be demonstrated? But in the new climate engendered by the crackdown, everything associated with hacking was suspect. Every self-proclaimed hacker acquired a Secret Service dossier, irrespective of his activities; every hacker with a handle qualified for a bust; every busted hacker was suspected of belonging to the Legion of Doom; and the mere mention of the word Cyberpunk seemed enough to bring down the full force of the law.
Under the circumstances, Steve Jackson had drawn a full house. Not only did he employ a known hacker--Loyd Blankenship, who had a handle and was even a member of the LoD--he was also engaged in producing a "hacker handbook" called Cyberpunk.
During the raid on Steve Jackson Games, the Secret Service had confiscated much of the company's computer equipment, without which equipment the company could barely function. It took months, and the assistance of a foundation-supplied lawyer, before the Feds returned the equipment--some of it, according to Steve, damaged, with valuable data missing.
The Secret Service kept the equipment as potential evidence for a "crime" that was never committed. For, while GURPS Cyberpunk does contain information on dumpster diving and social engineering, it is ultimately a game. It is no more a "handbook on hacking" than, say, this book is. (The game was finally published later that year, without causing any noticeable increase in hacking crimes.) Even though no charges were filed against Steve, his business suffered while the Secret Service held his computer systems. His turnover was down and half of his staff was laid off. He estimates his losses for the period at over $300,000. With the help of the foundation, he has since filed a civil suit against the Secret Service and two of its agents, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cook, and a Bellcore security manager.
At the time of writing, Loyd Blankenship (the Mentor) has not been charged with anything either, although he still has not received his computer equipment back. Given his background in the LoD, it is not thought likely that he ever will. As a known hacker, he is not pressing the Secret Service too hard; instead, said a friend, he's "Lying low."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation couldn't help everyone. Phiber Optik was sentenced to a period of thirty-five hours of community service for a relatively minor hacking offense. Even worse, he suffered the shame of being thrown out of the Legion of Doom--though that had nothing to do with his arrest. His crime, in the LoD's eyes, was that he and Acid Phreak (a non-Legionnaire) had demonstrated their hacking skills for a magazine article published in Esquire in December 1990. Although both he and Acid Phreak had kept their identities secret even using phony handles--the other Legionnaires felt that the young hacker was on "an ego trip," a charge confirmed for them when he appeared on a number of television shows. Phiber Optik, the other Legionnaires decided, had too high a profile for the Legion.
Not being in LoD didn't stop him from hacking. He joined the MoD instead--but then he was busted along with four other MoD members: Outlaw, Corrupt, Renegade Hacker, and the Wing. These arrests were devastating to the gang, principally because their equipment was confiscated. (The MoD accused the Legion of turning them in as a last reprisal in the hacker wars, but this seems unlikely.) In July '92 a federal grand jury indicted Outlaw, Corrupt, Phiber Optik, Acid Phreak, and Scorpion for breaking into telco and credit agency computers, and for stealing data.
