The Hacker Crackdown

Published in 1992, The Hacker Crackdown explores the watershed events in hacker subculture during the early 1990s, beginning with the January 15, 1990 crash of AT&T's long-distance switching system.

Sterling examines the personalities and institutions involved in federal and state operations against the nation's computer underground, including Operation Sundevil, the raid on Steve Jackson Games, and the trial of Knight Lightning.

The book is organized around three perspectives: the hackers themselves, law enforcement cybercops, and the emerging online civil liberties movement that led to the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.