Operation Sundevil was a 1990 nation-wide United States Secret Service crackdown on "illegal computer hacking activities." It involved raids in approximately fifteen different cities and resulted in three arrests and the confiscation of computers, boards, and floppy disks. It was revealed in a press release on May 9, 1990. The arrests and subsequent court cases resulted in the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The operation is now seen as largely a public-relations stunt. Operation Sundevil has also been viewed as one of the preliminary attacks on the Legion of Doom and similar hacking groups. The raid on Steve Jackson Games, which led to the court case Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, is often attributed to Operation Sundevil, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation states that it is unrelated and cites this attribution as a media error.

The name comes from the Sundevil football stadium of Arizona State University, near the local Secret Service headquarters from where the investigation and raids were coordinated.

Background

Prior to 1990, phreaks, or those who manipulate telecommunication systems, were generally untouched by law enforcement and ran rampant through pay-phones. Phone companies complained of financial losses from phreaking activities. Hackers, or those who break into computers, began to appear as phone companies began to switch to digital from analog. They too were generally untouched by law enforcement. However, starting in 1989, the Secret Service, which had been given authority from Congress to deal with access device fraud as an extension of wire fraud investigations under Title 18 , began to investigate. Over the course of 18 months, they investigated alleged unauthorized use of credit card numbers and long-distance telephone dialing codes.

Operation Sundevil provided the Secret Service and the federal government with the opportunity to obtain valuable and hard-to-find evidence against wire and credit-card frauds. The boards targeted were full of evidence that could be used against hackers and thieves. Additionally, it was meant to send a message to both the hacking community and law enforcement that activities like hacking and phreaking were both illegal and prosecutable.

Action

Along with the Chicago Task Force and the Arizona Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau, the operation involved raids in Austin, Plano, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Tucson, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. The raids were centered in Arizona, where the press conference occurred.

Raids generally took place in middle-class suburbs and targeted credit card thieves and telephone abusers. They were carried out by local police, with the aid of over 150 Secret Service agents. Twenty-seven search warrants, resulting in three arrests, were issued and executed on May 7 and 8, 1990. Police also took around 42 computers and approximately 25 boards, making it the largest crackdown on boards in world history. Finally, about 23,000 floppy disks were also seized. These held a variety of data, including software and other pirated material. The three people arrested were "Tony the Trashman," "Dr. Ripco," and "Electra."

Other parts of the operation targeted the underground ezine Phrack, which had published the contents of a proprietary text file copied from Bell South computers and containing 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.

Aftermath

In a press release on May 9, 1990, officials from the federal government and the Arizona state government revealed that the Secret Service was involved in the investigation. The Assistant Director of the US Secret Service, Garry M. Jenkins, commented in a press release that, "the Secret Service is sending a clear message to those computer hackers who have decided to violate the laws of this nation in the mistaken belief that they can successfully avoid detection by hiding behind the relative anonymity of their computer terminals."

Two public-access computer systems were shut down in the days following the operation: an AT&T Unix system and a Jolnet system in Lockport, Illinois. Neither has been linked to the operation, however. An AT&T spokesman claimed the shutdown was a result of an internal investigation and was not related to the operation.

In response to the arrests, a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded by Mitchell Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, and John Perry Barlow, an author. The foundation hired lawyers to represent the hackers in two of the cases arising from Operation Sundevil.

Operation Sundevil was the most publicized action by the federal government against hackers. In part due to this, it has been seen as a public-relations stunt and a message to hackers. While it did little overall damage to the hacking community, only managing to take down a small fraction of the boards available on the web, it has been lauded as a tactical success due to the surprise and damage it caused to the communities in comparison to the long wars waged against the Legion of Doom. However, it has also been criticized as a failure due to several unsuccessful prosecutions.

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