NCJ Number
143216
Date Published
1992
Length
337 pages
Annotation
This book provides a brief history of telephony as the medium for computerized communication, describes the characteristics of the digital underground, reviews the content of Federal computer-related crime legislation, and examines legal issues in the hacker crackdown of the 1990's.
Abstract
The issues examined in the book pertain to ownership and the appropriate use of "cyberspace." The term "cyberspace," first used by novelist William Gibson, was adopted by John Barlow as a synonym for the modern nexus of computer and telecommunications networks. Barlow argues that cyberspace is a qualitatively new world that requires a new set of metaphors, rules, and behaviors. At issue in the construction of rules that define acceptable behaviors for the use of cyberspace is who owns what. This in turn has implications for computer-related theft and property damage. The author portrays "hacker" individuals and groups as rebels against the normative capitalist effort of large organizations to gain control of cyberspace. Government and business leaders suspect hackers of causing computer "viruses" and "crashes" that have plagued large computer networks. Some suspected the crash of the AT&T long- distance system nationwide on January 15, 1990, was the work of hackers, but all evidence points to flaws within the AT&T software. Still, the suspicions prompted the large- scale Secret Service raid on hackers under the rubric of "Operation Sundevil." This book profiles the laws and the legal issues involved in the raids; it identifies misconduct by both prosecutors and hackers in the emerging field of cyberspace. Subject index