Hacker Crackdown

Thu, Feb 22

In 1992 Bruce Sterling published a contemporary classic, "Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier", capturing the spirit of the times with the criminalization (and eventual crackdown) of the so-called "hacker underground." In this class we return to our discussion of the public imaginary of hackers in the Euroamerican context and how that informed the laws for "digital trespassing" and "computer fraud." We will examine, in particular, one of the most extensive police crackdowns in the history of hacking in the US "Operation Sundevil" and describe the rise of digital civil rights organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

After this class, you should be able to:

1. Describe the first wave of criminalization of hacking

2. Contextualize the "hacker underground" in terms of its practices, artifacts, and values

3. Evaluate key events of law enforcement as well as legal overreach against computer hacker collectives

You can find the slides for today's class here.